Desperate for Relief
by EmeraldOfTheOcean
Summary: There's some great tension growing between the Hyperforce, everyone is on edge, and our young leader has no idea why. Will an ill, bed written Otto give Chiro the answers on what's causing all this anger? And what dark secrets will he find about the Hyperforce's past?
1. Training

**HEY I"M BACK! I'm so sorry for starting another story in between like 5, but I can't get this one out of my head. Please be patient with my other stories and I promise you will enjoy this one.**

 **(I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO! )**

It was another night in Shuggazoom City, months after the Hyperforce returned from space. The silver simian had a new telepathic lecture prepared for the 15 year leader. Chiro and Antauri sat in the latter's bedroom along with Sparx and Nova who were assisting them in the teenager's lesson. As the red and yellow monkeys sat up on their futons, Antauri exclaimed levitating over them, "I would like to thank you both for volunteering to help us in our lesson"

Chiro added on to his mentor's compliment, only sounding a little uncomfortable and nervous "Y-yeah, guys" he said playing with his fingers "I really appreciate it."

Nova gulped asked the silver primate a question for reassurance "and you're positive that he can do this?"

"Of course," the pacifist replied "that is, if you feel prepared to, my son" he said turning his head behind him to Chiro

"Let's do it." the boy announced punching his palms

"Alright then" Sparx said with a smile as he and Nova picked up their special tea cups "Bottoms up" he purposed a toast. With that, they both drank the substance within the cup, and the two of them quickly passed out on their futons, peacefully asleep.

"Hm" Antauri sighed as everything was going as it should "Come, Chiro. We have only one hour before the tranquilizing tea wears off." he commanded as he sat down beside Sparx's head. Chiro, however, merely responded with reluctant silence.

"I-I don't know, Antauri. I don't want to hurt them. I know you'll be with me, but me, in someone else's mind?" the raven haired boy explained his doubts as he sat next to his father figure

The wise monkey just smiled "You have nothing to fear, Chiro. Dream control with the right intentions is absolutely harmless. I promise we won't damage any important parts of their minds. Place trust in yourself as they have with you" he smiled at Chiro in encouragement. As Chiro smiled back in relief, the two placed both hands on the forehead of the sleeping red pilot and entered into his mind

 **(SPARX'S MIND)**

 _Antauri beamed Chiro and himself straight into the void where all the mind's dreams and nightmares took place. Once they arrived, Chiro looked around to see that the void was endless and pitch black as he looked to his left to see the silver monkey floating near his shoulder._

 _"Welcome to the void of dreams, Chiro." he announced as the gazed upon their surroundings "This is where we shall be having our lessons for the evening." he explained._

 _The teenager looked again in almost all directions " Whoa. You know? I actually expected this place to-" the orange leader gasped when he saw the red monkey engulfed in a light pink and purple bubble and appeared to be unconscious. "SPARX!" Chiro shouted as he ran and placed a hand on the bubble in the deepest of concerns "Antauri, is he okay?!" he turned to the simian he considered his father._

 _"Worry not. This isn't Sparx, but merely his physiological counterpart. This is the version of Sparx that experiences the events of his dreams, while the real Sparx only remembers them. Because there's currently no sort of dream occurring, he is in a dormant state and he feels nothing, but he'll have no knowledge go our presence as we control his dreams" the wise primate explained_

 _"Ohh!" said Chiro as he nodded in comprehension "I get it now. So he's out cold until he has a dream."_

 _"Hm hm hm... That is where we come in." said the second in command as he flew higher above the boy. "Shall we begin?"_

 _"Oh yeah, definitely" said the black haired boy standing back to give Antauri some space_

 _"You remember what we're doing?" he wanted to insure he knew what to do_

 _"You're gonna create a nightmare using dream control, and I have to create a better dream by myself. Got it" he said giving a thumbs up._

 _"Very good" Antauri nodded as he raised both arms in front of him and pressed his hands together in the form of a prayer. Then his eyes shot wide and he threw his arms straight in front of himself at the speed of sound. Both his eyes and hands were engulfed in strange green flames very reminiscent of the Power Primate. Suddenly, the bubble the hibernated the red monkey was set ablaze from the outside and destroyed. Resulting in Sparx grunting as he hit ground quite hard. Observing Sparx closing, Antauri quickly flicked one hand and five bright candles appeared where the smart aleck was laying down. Then, all of a sudden, as the silver raised that same hand and two fingers, a sudden voice could be heard from the void._

 _"Sparx?" both Chiro and Sparx knew that voice very well by this point,_

 _"Nova?" the red pilot called out as he rose to his knees "Where are you? Why is it so dark in here?"_

 _Chiro, still watching from the sidelines, widened his eyes in confusion. 'Wait. He can't see?' he thought to himself. With somewhat discomfort, he looked at his mentor who expressed a face of unmistakable seriousness. The silver simian crushed his fingers into his right palm, forced his hand down like a judge. This caused the red primate to fall to his chest_

 _"Oof!" Sparx thumped as he hit his chin against the ground. He began to lose his breath in fear as tried in vain to even find his ankles in the pitch black void._

 _Suddenly, the voice of his comrade could be heard again. "Sparx! Sparx, help me!" except now the yellow primate's tone was louder and more afraid. Of what was unknown. All Sparx knew was that his teammate was in danger, and he had to keep trying to escape from his own danger in order to save, but he couldn't. His forehead was sweating a storm of bullets from anxiety. Why couldn't he see? What was pulling at his ankles? Just then, Antauri began a new trick; he reached his arms out and grabbed on to an invisible rope mime style. He pulled the imaginary rope towards his chest, as the frightened pilot was being pulled further into darkness, either way, he was blind as a bat._

 _With the purest form of panic in his breathing, he dug his metal hands into the floor in a failed attempt to stop the chains from pulling him further away from Nova's terrified voice "(grunt) Hey, let me go! Nova?! NOVA, HELP ME, PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"_

 _A mortified Chiro had now had enough of witnessing his older brother figure in such relentless peril. He rushed to his mentor and pressured him to desist with this nightmare, "Antauri!" he pulled on his leg "He's had enough!"_

 _The silver monkey was startled by the boy's impulse but calmly looked down at him and replied "I know" as he stopped controlling the nightmare "Now it's your turn. You have to create a positive outcome for this dream based on the scenario I've displayed thus far" he instructed as he gestured towards a still screaming Sparx._

 _"Um, o-okay," Chiro said with a gulp "but you made it look so easy"_

 _For support, the blue eyed robot placed a hand on Chiro. "You'll do fine, my son. It's just like a simple puppet show." he explained. "All you need is contraction, creativity, and an understanding of the dreamer."_

 _With a deep, soothing inhale, the black haired teen nodded and stepped forward. At first, he was distracted by the red monkey's terrified screams and calls for help, but he quickly shook it off as he listened to Antauri's dictations through the process._

 _"Now, direct your mental energy to course throughout your entire body. Feel the power of control flow within your veins. Your imagination shall be your puppet, this void shall be your stage, your fingers are the strings, and you, Chiro, are the puppet master." Antauri's instructions took complete hold of the boy. Chiro stood up completely straight, closed his baby blue eyes, exhaled through his nose, and held his hands in the form of meditation. After a moment, he opened his eyes to unveil very feint green flames that died as quickly as they came. With more force than necessary, he pushed one hand forward and flicked his fingers. Suddenly, an unknown figure appeared and destroyed the chains, stopping, Sparx in his tracks._

 _With several rapid pants, the red simian sat up by his elbows. "What (pant) what happened?"_

 _"Sparx?" the strange figure that Sparx still couldn't see was Nova "Are you okay?" she asked with a caring tone as she sat him up by his knees._

 _"Nova!" he gasped with joy as he pulled her into a hug. "What's going on? Why is it so dark?" he questioned with a voice of anxiety. Despite the fact that the yellow monkey was presumably alright, his lack vision and lack of answers chilled him to the terror_

 _In the background, Chiro gulped to himself. As the silver primate informed him, he must be cautious with what he thinks because anything that pops into his head will appear in Sparx's Dream. The boy brought one fist forward and flicked his gloved fingers out, commanding the illusion of Nova to respond_

 _"Sparx... there're candles all over the place" she told him with a low voice of concern_

 _The red monkey paused and his hands began to shake as he put two and two together "Wait" he said through heavy hyperventilation "Ar-are you saying I'm b-blind!" he exclaimed "No..No! I can't be! I-"_

 _As the black haired leader pushed both arms forward, Nova grabbed his wrists and made him face her direction "Sparx" she said sternly "Listen to me, I can help you, but you have to listen to me. Can you feel when you close your eye? Can you feel yourself blink?"_

 _"Um... yes" the red monkey replied reluctantly_

 _"Okay. I want you to close your eyes, and don't open them until I tell you to, okay?" she dictated, much to Sparx's confusion_

 _"But what good is that-"_

 _"Please you'll be alright, but I need you to trust me. I'm right here." Nova calmly told him with such a loving, tender voice that the paranoid pilot knew he was safe to comply. He closed his blind eyes as tight as he could and kneeled down in silence._

 _Still in control of the dream, the teenage leader held up two and swiped them forward as if he was using an iPod. Nova copied this motion as she ran those same fingers across Sparx's eyes, apparently dusting off some sort of white mist that was the culprit for Sparx's blindness._

 _Watching from close behind his student, Antauri gave himself a grin, nodded, and whispered under his breath, "Very, very good"_

 _Chiro almost jumped with excitement over his performance as Nova said to the red smart aleck, "Okay, open your eyes"_

 _With a smile, Sparx opened his eyes, but was greeted to a strange shock. Nova had grown orange and silver butterfly wings with plums on each center "Whoa!" he gasped and jumped back. Chiro's eyes shot open and bit his lip, not knowing what what he did wrong. Meanwhile, Antauri gasped and covered his mouth, but stayed still, wanted to let Chiro figure this out for himself_

 _"Nova!" Sparx exclaimed with a baffled voice, pointing at the yellow female "Y-you have-"_

 _"What?" she obviously shrugged her shoulders when the wings caught her eyes "Oh, these?" she giggled "Yeah, I can't always control when these ladies pop up. It happens" this was quite peculiar. Why was Nova acting like this was so normal? Suddenly a new surprise revealed it elf; the pink eyed fighter grew two ears, on her left was a brown and neon blue striped cat ear, and to her right was a big tie dye elephant ear with the colors shifting around like they were in a lava lamp._

 _Chiro stepped back in panic now realizing he'd completely lost control of the dream, but all Antauri could do was cover his mouth and chuckle under his breath. As bizarre as these images were, this scenario was just extremely amusing based on personal experience._

 _Back to Sparx, all he do was stare in disbelief since he had no idea how to react "I-I uhh.." was all_

 _"What'sssss the matter, Sssssparkkkyy?" she questioned rattling her snake like tongue and stretched out her arm. This mutant that used to be Nova restricted the horrified simian and pulled him into a dip. She caressed his face with hands which had turned into a rabbit's paw that had long, beige painted nails "Don't like what you sssssseeeeee?" she taunted with a voice of sick delight_

 _"Hey!" Sparx woke up from his trance and struggled in vain to break free from her furry arms "Let me go! SOMEONE HELP ME!"_

 _As Sparx continued to cry for help, the young leader's face began to glow red as he covered his ears praying this would stop itself. The silver, still levitating above him, took a minute to fight off his laughter. When he succeeded, he placed a hand on his son's shoulder, and the boy looked up to a smiling face_

 _"Per-(snicker) perhaps we should take our leave" the wise simian struggled to say with a straight face._

 _"Please" the black haired boy begged in utter embarrassment. With a quick nod, the silver monkey held his arms out straight and the two telepaths were beamed back into reality._

 **(REALITY)**

Both the team's leaders gasped as their minds returned to reality. Almost immediately, Antauri lost to his urges and let out several light chuckles, which Chiro found rather offensive

"Antauri!" he shouted in anger, stood up and crossed his arms, facing the wall.

The silver simian tried to pull himself together to apologize to his leader. "He he he Chiro" he finally stopped chuckling "it's alright. You did splendid for your first attempt at dream control" he complimented with a grin

"Splendid?!" Chiro turned back around to ensure that he heard that right. "You were in there with me?! That was humiliating! I turned that dream into an LSD trip!" he yelled kneeling back down in frustration.

"Chiro, listen to me" Antauri requested as he pulled the blue eyed leader up by his chin to make eye contact. "Nothing that occurred was abnormal in terms of dream control, especially for a beginner. I promise you this has happened at least once to all telepaths attempting to do this."

The boy widened his eyes in surprise "Really?" the silver smiled and nodded "Weirder than that?" he asked pointing to the red simian who was still asleep.

The wise monkey chuckled and rubbed Chiro's head, messing up his hair "If you thought that was bad, you should've seen my first attempt at dream control" then, the robot frowned, turned his head and mumbled under his breath " _so many poodles, not enough seashells_ "

Chiro barely heard that and rose an eyebrow in confusion "What?"

"Um, w-why don't we just move on to Nova? There's one more lesson you must learn immediately with this new power." he said moving next to the resting yellow primate.

The leader needed reassurance "So it's alright if something insane happens?"

"Of course" the second in command replied "There's nothing more than harmless dreams. Now come along," he gestured for his young pupil to come forward "Nova won't be asleep for much longer"

With that, the boy nodded in agreement, sat next to Antauri and they entered Nova's sleeping mind together.

 **(NOVA'S MIND)**

 _The place they showed up to was no different from Sparx's mind. Right down to finding the bubble gum eyed monkey lying dormant in a pink cocoon like bubble._

 _"Same as before?" Chiro gulped staring at his engulfed teammate._

 _"Yes." the mentor confirmed as he pulled a small, fury red orb from behind his back "Let's waste no time with this." he announced as he threw the orb against the ground with utter force. This resulted in a bright light engulfing the darkness surrounding them. It was so blinding that the raven haired teen had to cover his eyes with his lower arm. Once he removed them, he found himself back at the Super Robot training room where Nova was standing in a room with a strange orange primate watching her from a two way mirror._

 _Chiro gasped when he suddenly realized who that monkey was "Mandarin?" he turned and asked the silver levitating in lotus form behind him. All the pacifist to reply was nod in conformation, and pointed ahead, implying that the student needed to pay attention._

 _Finally the nightmare began "Are you ready, dear Nova?" a much younger Mandarin asked from an intercom_

 _Nova sighed and replied with a moan, "Let's just get this over with." she complained. With a grin, the former Monkey Team leader turned a nozzle, decreasing the temperature in training room. It took no time for the Yellow monkey to start shivering and hugging her chest to get warm._

 _In the background, the metal monkey lightly grabbed his son's shoulder and commanded "Alright, I want you to attempt to control the nightmare from here. Just remember how you did it in Sparx's mind."_

 _"Do I have to?" he whined implying that he didn't want to think about the outlandish image he unintentionally created in Sparx's dream._

 _"Yes." the mentor replied sternly "Just take your time, and see what you can do." with that, the boy stepped closer to a shuttering Nova who was getting increasingly colder. After folder his hands meditation style, his eyes glew with an even weaker flame then before. He thrust his arms forward, attempting to blow away the cold air, except nothing happened. The dream was still playing as Nova told it long ago. When Chiro tried again, he actually felt a chain like force pull his arm back, almost as if he wasn't allowed to change the dream._

 _"Antauri, what's going on? I can't do anything." the boy grunted as he regained._

 _"Hm hm hm hm... You wouldn't be able to." the blue eyed simian mysteriously replied_

 _"What do you mean?" the young hero tiled his_ _head in confusion. Before Antauri held out both his arms once again, sending Chiro and himself back into the waking world._

 **(REALITY)**

Now back in reality, Chiro grabbed his head due to the sudden rush, and the silver monkey quickly eyed the two sleeping volunteers, knowing they wouldn't be asleep for much longer. "Alright, Chiro, Sparx and Nova shall be awakening shortly. Any final questions for today?" he asked looking the teenager in the eye

"Um, yeah" he answered scratching his head "How come I couldn't change anything in Nova's nightmare?"

"Let's answer question that with question; what were two differences between the two dreams?"

Chiro lifted an eyebrow and looked into his lap as he pondered his father's question. "...Um.. you controlled Sparx's dream by hand, and you created Nova's with a smoke bomb thing." he thought out loud slowly as the thoughts came to him.

"Mmm hmm." the robot nodded, indicating that his pupil was on the right path.

"And as for the dreams themselves,..." he paused to put the pieces together in his mind "You made up Sparx's dream, but I remember Nova describe that training session before."

"Exactly," Antauri confirmed "certain dreams like Nova's are referred to as 'memory dreams'." he explained "These are dreams that reflect specifically on events from the past, such as a traumatic event. Thus, even the greatest masters of dream control are not able to alter them. They shall proceed as the dreamer remembers them and no mortal can change that." he finished the lesson. Just then, the sleeping primates began to shift in their sleep as they began to woke up. While Nova's eyes were still fluttering, the red monkey quickly sat up and stretched his shoulders out.

"Whoo." he exclaimed as he turned to face the two telepaths "(yawn) That wasn't so bad. Through let me tell you, Kid, that was some wild ride." he chuckled

Just like before, the black haired boy began to blush once again and apologized rapidly "Sparx, I am so sorry about that. It just got so out of control and-"

"Kid, Kid, relax." the pilot stopped him while not sounding upset. "Trust me, after Antauri's first try at dream control, I don't scare easy in my sleep" suddenly, the red monkey turned his head and mumbled under his breath " _just a few more seashells, man. just a few more._ " he growled

That, once again didn't, escape the ear of their young leader. Just as Nova sat up with a yawn, the curious hero questioned the two boys once again "Okay, am I ever gonna know about that thing with the-"

"Nova!" the red monkey announced with an exaggerated smile as he used the yellow female's presence to avoid a question nobody wanted to answer. "How was your little dream adventure?" he asked with fake enthusiasm. However, the girl almost paid no heed to anything around her. She had a blank stare that was filled with distraught.

"Nova," Antauri spoke up with minor concern in his voice, "Are you alright?" he asked approaching her slowly

This caught Nova's attention as she quickly turned her head, giving the silver monkey quite the infuriated glare. "Are you nuts?"

The three boys were a bit put off by her sudden outburst "Nova, what's wrong?" asked Chiro who kept his distance

Nova didn't respond to her leader, she just approached her second in commend in rage "Jeez, Antauri, of all the bad memories, you had to use that one!? Now?!" she shouted with anger and somewhat distraught.

"Wait, what dream is she talking about?" asked Sparx. Suddenly, the silver monkey lightly gasped when realized what a foolish mistake he'd made using that particular dream at this particular time. "Nova, I-I'm so sorry." he shuttered with guilt. He reached for her shoulder, but she pulled back with a light growl, avoiding his grip "I.. I was just so focused on Chiro's lesson that-"

"That you couldn't even remember that tomorrow is-" she began to rant, but her eyes shot open when the young boy and red simian caught her eyes. Chiro and Sparx just looked at her in concern, but the red pilot just glared at Antauri and Nova, indicating that she needed to be quite. Then, the bubble gum eyed primate bit her bottom lip in frustration, hid her eyes in her hands, and ran out of the bedroom into her own

The wise simian exhaled in guilt as the red monkey stepped up behind him and spoke in a less upset voice "That better have been a pretty good to use the dream I think you used." was all he said before he rushed after Nova to console her. Chiro just sat there in shock. Even with a mistake, how could anyone on the team ever talk to Antauri of all people?

"What the heck was that about?" the teen asked in disbelief

The robot sighed and spoke with a tone of sadness and remorse "It's... nothing that concerns you, Chiro." he said avoiding eye contact.

This caused the boy to stand up and sit back down next where Antauri was still sitting and staring at the door. "Are you sure? Because this kind of arguing has been going on for a week now." he pointed out.

The silver simian sighed and stood up, still refusing to give his pupil eye contact. He stopped at his bedroom door, laid one hand on the wall, turned one eye and replied "This will all be over soon enough. That's all I can say." with that, the mentor left on that note, most likely to make amends with Nova. The black haired leader paused for a moment. After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he decided to ask the three monkeys what the heck was going on. When he ran out of Antauri's bedroom, he bumped into a certain monkey just walking through the halls. While Chiro stayed standing, Otto was knocked to the floor and landed on his side.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Otto." he apologized to his teammate and stood him up, but found that Otto stood up with very wobbly steps. The green primate spoke in a meek, barely hoarse tone

"It's fine, Chiro." he replied "I wasn't looking where I was going." he said with a cough.

The leader decided to ask the younger mechanic if he knew anything about the tension that was suddenly rising lately "Hey, Otto, things have been kind of tense around here lately. Do you know what's going on between everyone?"

Otto didn't answer for a moment because he was just giving a dead stare into his hands, much to Chiro's confusion. "It's nothing, Buddy." he so clearly lied through his teeth, and Chiro wasn't buying it, but allowed the green monkey to continue "Listen, I just need to go sleep right now. I've got a headache." he said walking right passed Chiro with steps displaying that he could barely stand.

Are... you okay, Otto?" the boy asked tilting his head as the silly monkey walked into his room. However, Otto didn't reply and his door just closed without a sound. Chiro was now alone in the hallway. He stood there watching Otto's bedroom door in suspicion. Something was going on within his team, and tomorrow, he would have to get to the bottom of it.

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

 **Okay, very strange start. Please leave an honest review and maybe a guess on where you think this is going to go. It's good to be back, Happy Halloween**


	2. Sudden Tension

After sleeping on the issue, Chiro woke up on his regular early schedule in preparation for their daily training. As he laid down facing the ceiling, he yawned stretching with arms out and rubbed the crusty bits of sand from his eyes. Just as he sat up, he could hear the blue British monkey call every down from the Super Robot's main floor. "Breakfast is ready, team! Come on down!"

The young gasped to himself in excitement. While he remained calm, he was so ready to eat, that he decided to just straighten his hair little bit, but just head downstairs in his baby blue pajamas. Once the leader exited his tube bringing him downstairs, he was met with Antauri, Nova, and Gibson sitting at the table, while the red smart aleck was setting up the plates. It quickly caught Chiro's eye that the green simian's bright smile was not there to brighten up the room. However, he didn't question this because Otto was usually late for breakfast, whether from sleeping in or finishing one of his projects was anyone's guess. With all of the tension stirring around the robot lately, Chiro didn't question it. For now, the young warrior wanted to enjoy the first moment of peace since last night.

He finally broke the silence and announced "Morning Monkey Team." he said taking a seat

Everyone quick gave their own quick response "Good morning, My son"

"Good morning"

"(yawn) Morning, Chiro"

"Hey, Kid." with each reply, the raven haired leader could feel the uncomfortable tension amongst his teammates tickling his thin, smooth skin into rough, frigid goosebumps. However, he kept his poker face smile as he tried to start a simple conversation

"So, what's for breakfast, Sparx?"

"Oh, um... eggs, sunny side up." the red primate replied as he placed the eggs on Chiro's plate, and Chiro caught a small grin under the pilot's muzzle. Almost as if he knew what his leader was doing and was happy that someone was trying to lighten the mood.

"Hey, Nova" the boy chuckled awkwardly pouring his orange juice "Looks like you and Antauri worked things out." he chuckled

The yellow simian looked up from her cup still leaning her head on one arm. "Yeah..." she mumbled "We talked everything over last night. I just don't want to talk about last night."

"Oh, yes, what exactly was that argument about last night?" asked Gibson curiously. Because the blue scientist was working in lab last night, he had no idea what occurred between three of his teammates.

"I just said I didn't want to talk about it, Gibson." she spoke up with a minor growl. The intelligent primate was taken back by Nova's respond, as well as the others who were just sitting there awkwardly

'Oh no' the raven haired boy thought to himself as he realized another fight was rearing its ugly head.

"Nova, I only asked because I could hear that argument from my lab." the blue monkey tensed up to defend himself "I think I have the right to know-"

"What?" she stood up with her fist on the table. "That I'm overemotional hot-head and I suck?! Yeah, real head scratcher there, Brainstrain!" she shouted in rage, using the red monkey's nickname for the team's resident genius

The blue primate was insulted by the pink eyed girl's comments about him and decided to put his metal foot down "Well," he scoffed in offense "I see _somebody_ hasn't gotten enough beauty sleep, now has she!?" he asserted in anger

"What's your excuse?!" she pushed one hand against his chest, but the blue simian grabbed her wrist, pulling them into a head bash as they glared at each other in rage and teeth showing.

The silver primate came to intervene "Gibson, Nova, enough! This is no place " he levitated in front of both of them, and pushed them away from each other. "Nova, I can understand if you didn't want to answer him, but Gibson was just asking you a question." the pacifist explained calmly. Chiro and Sparx were still watching from their seats and looked at each other looking very annoyed by everyone's behavior, especially the red simian

"Can you stay out of this?!" she grunted as she took her wrist back from the blue cyborg.

The silver robot frowned and his voice spoke in a stricter tone, "Nova, as your second-in-command-"

"You can but into our business whenever you want, we know." the red monkey rolled his eyes and announced with a condescending tone.

Chiro sat up straight and grabbed his older brother figure in panic "No Sparx, not you too." the boy begged him not to provoke this anger any further

Antauri widened his eyes to this statement "What are you talking about?" he asked turning to the robot pilot.

"Oh please, we've been fighting at the drop of a hat all week. Do you really think talking about anything is gonna work at this point?" the pilot mouthed the floating simian

"Excuse me, I won't just stand by while my friends are having simple arguments over every little thing." the normally calm primate rose his voice in frustration

The yellow simian asked Antauri "Are you saying I'm being petty?" she asked with offense

"Will you stop putting words in everybody's mouths!?" the blue eyed monkey growled as he turned around to the angry female fighter. Just then all four of the monkeys began to brawl in a shouting match. All four of their usually charming and pleasant voices were clashing into each other; stinging everyone round them with anger and bitterness, especially the by standing infuriated leader dug his nails into the blue wooden table and breathed into his palm for a solid ten seconds before his patients finally gave out. He lightly banged a frustrated fist on the table and quietly stormed out of the kitchen, with a hushed yet anger bit of mutters to himself. However, everyone was so caught up in their unusually petty disputes of rage, that they forgot that the boy was ever in the room at all.

Meanwhile in the Super Robot's main room, Chiro growled to himself as he mumbled in anger "Of all the selfish, immature... AH!" he grunted and kicked the black chair closest to his foot when he stopped his pacing of irritation "A whole week of this crap!" he proclaimed as loud as he could without anyone hearing his rant. Not that anyone could over their hateful, poisonous word overlapping each other with shouting "All this damn arguing wouldn't be bad if I knew what the hell they were all on edge about." he muttered with a calmer tone. The human teenager sat in the nearest chair, leaning on the edge of the seat, placing his arms between his knees and his chin, clearly depressed that something bitter has has leeched its way into his casually mellow environment. Everyone had been so agitated for very little reasons, all except for himself and...

'Otto' the leader sat up widening his eyes as he remembered the primate that was mentally closest to him in age. 'Come to think of it' he thought looking down 'Otto's been pretty quiet and meek since the fight began.' he realized "Come to think of it," he thought out loud, "I've barely seen or heard him all week. I wonder how he's been handling all of this fighting." he tried to speak to himself as the arguing could still be heard from the kitchen. Just before the young Chosen One could think about his next move one of the tubes be activated and someone was entering the main floor

The orange dressed leader turned his head up to confirm his guess on who it was "Otto" he called the green monkey as he came to feet. Chiro was finally able to smile now that he had someone else to be a voice of reason during the team's feuding. However, the boy's wide eyed hope was quickly dashed with a steel, cold blade of concern when he noticed that his goofy comrade was leaning on the wall swaying between every individual step. Even from a distance, the blue eye teen could tell that something was very wrong with his intelligent teammate.

Just then, the green mechanic's pupils dilated at the sound and he swiftly latched onto his muzzle as if he was holding something in. His sweat was painfully visible as he collapsed to his knees and called for the person closest in his blurry, flashing sigh "C-(hic) hiro" he pleaded weakly as he fell on his side pouring out acids of vomit amongst the silver. All he could do was curl into a ball to search for some position to comfort himself and escape the pain.

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

 **I AM SO SORRY FOR CUTTING OFF HERE! I'm been under a ton of stress lately, like A LOT. I needed to get this out ASAP. Please leave a review and give your honest opinion**

 **I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!**


	3. Blizzard Beacons

"OTTO!" the leader gasped and rushed at top speed to aid the ill primate. He ran so fast that he almost slipped on the sickly monkey's spews of stomach acid as he dropped to his knees to take a closer at poor Otto. He gently turned the puking monkey on his back to get a closer look at his cringing face. When he did, he got an even closer look at red and hot the cyborgs face was, to the point where it was particularly glowing. The boy placed attempted to rub a caring hand on his pal's red face, but flinched it back in a startled manner

"OW!" he yelped. Otto's forehead was throbbing hot, and was as warm as steamed metal to the touch. Chiro ignored the sting in his hand to focus on his green teammate was much more pain than his burned hand would wish to comprehend. "Otto, talk to me." Chiro rapidly commanded a hand on Otto cheek in order to maintain eye contact "Say something, where does it hurt?!"

Due to the commotion that could barely be heard from the kitchen over the arguing, four round heads could be seen popping their eyes out to investigate. The others gasped and exclaimed words of panic as they rushed over to the youngest monkey.

"OTTO!" they all shouted crowded around his quivering body.

"Come on, buddy, stay with me." said Sparx as he tried to keep his friend awake in order to get some answers from him, hopefully

"Chiro, what happened?!" the blue doctor asked the only known witness about what's occurring while he held to fingers to Otto's throat to search for a pulse

"I-I don't know," he grabbed his head in panic as the green simian continued to puke stomach acid on himself while being sat up in Nova's motherly arms "He just came down here and passed out!" he explained in panic as his hands began shaking

Before anyone did anything else, the sick robot reached a hand on the yellow monkey's chest and wheezed out a whisper "(gasp) help... me" he retched out as he suffered a relapse of throwing up all over the floor.

"Gibson, do something!" Nova demanded as she shuttered over the colorless vomit at her feet

"Antauri, Nova, take him to the med bay, Chiro thermometer, Sparx, ice pack, and a lot of it!" the genius monkey points in certain directions as he took the lead "I need to prepare the med-bay and get Otto cleaned off immediately!" he announced running ahead to his lab while everyone followed their orders. The second and third in command carried him from his shoulders and legs to the med bay, while the monkey was having a coughing fit in their arms.

Once they arrived in Gibson's laboratory, Antauri and Nova placed him on the table as the coughing fits stopped were replaced with heavy, restrained wheezing. The silver pacifist used his telekinesis to grab two wet towels and a bucket filled with water and sponges. While the digested yellow warrior washed the vomit off of her arms, Antauri quickly yet gently washed the ill primate down to clean off his retch.

"Why thank you, both." the blue simian announced as he brought over an armful of medical supplies. "I need him cleaned off in order to examine him properly." he added as he placed a small pillow under his patient's overly heated head. Then Sparx and Chiro rushed into the med-bay with the objects the British doctor requested of them. While the red simian laid the ice pack on a nearby desk, the young leader handed Gibson the tongue thermometer for Otto.

"Thank you, Chiro." he replied. Suddenly, the ill mechanic began to have another quiet coughing fit The intelligent monkey leaned in on the sick primate to be sure that Otto could hear him "Otto, can you hear what I'm saying?" he whispered soothingly. Wheezing his lungs out, all the green monkey could do was nod, "Alright, listen to me, I know you can't control them, but I need you to hold in your coughs for just a moment so the thermometer can take your temperature. Do you understand?" he explained softly as he caressed Otto twisting and turning head. All the poor simian could do was hiss in pain and nod with a cringing facial expression as he accepted the plastic thermometer. Once he had it, the blue cyborg stepped back to reach for his sphygmomanometer.

"Any idea on what this might be?" the sarcastic pilot spoke out with a nervous tone.

"I have a theory, but I can't confirm anything without a full examination." the brainiac replied as the thermometer suddenly unleashed a quick, high pitched beep, indicating that it was finished taking the sick monkey's temperature. However, Gibson was still on the other side of the room. "Would somebody mind telling me his temperate please?" he called as he dug through his junk for the sphygmomanometer.

Nova, being the closest person to the primate in question, pulled the thermometer out of Otto's mouth. Once she looked closely at it and gasped "103.6!" he answered in distraught

"Great fiery Scots!" he exclaimed as he returned to the feverish cyborg's side. With great haste, he strapped the sphygmomanometer to Otto's weak metal arm and rapidly sneezed the rubber bulb, taking the sick monkey's blood pressure "That's far above his normal temperature, he must be running a drastic fever." he announced with a concerned expression. His eyes only widen even more when he saw the results of the green simian's blood test, "and his blood pressure is even more unsettlingly high." he said under his breath.

"Alright, so he's got a bad fever and high blood pressure. What does all of this tell you about what's wrong with him?" asked the red monkey as he crossed his arm, indicating that he, like the others, was demanding answers on Otto's concerning condition

Gibson sighed as he rubbed the anxious sweat from the blue fur of his brow " I'm sorry, team, if you all could give me twenty minutes to examine him in solitude, and I promise I will have a full diagnosis for you all." the scientist politely requested as he gestured his healthy team members out into the Robot's main room.

The leader in orange and white nodded as he ordered to everyone else "You heard him, guys, let's leave em alone" he said as he and the three remaining primates stepped outside to wait for Otto's test results

"We'll give you all the time you need, Gibson." Nova said as she paused in front of the door. With a cringing glare on fear in her eyes, yellow monkey whispered "Good luck."

The intelligent cyborg smiled lightly and gave her a thumb's up and replied "Thank you, Nova. I'll take care of this." with a simple nod between the two of them, the silver primate placed a caring hand on the golden female's shoulder and walked her outside to lave the doctor to his work.

 **(TWENTY MINUTES LATER)**

In the main room, the four remaining Hyperforce warriors each finding ways to keep themselves occupied for those long twenty minutes. Chiro and Antauri were meditating in silence while Nova was playing on a hand held video game and Sparx was just sitting there polishing his magnets and playing with the bolts that came out of them. Everyone was minding their own business, when the black haired boy opened his eyes and turned his head to his mentor with an idea. Now was his chance to figure out what was causing all of this arguing between his friends and teammates. Perhaps it would show him the roots of the mechanic's illness

Chiro finally took a deep breath and sparked the conversation with the silver robot "Antauri?" he muttered

"Hmm?" moaned Antauri as he was awoken from his meditative trance "Chiro, has Gibson finished with his testing yet?" he asked as he looked around for the British primate

"um.. no. Listen, can you please tell me why you guys have been so tense lately?" he asked curiously

With a sigh, the robot mentor looked his son in the eye with a caring teacher like stare. "Chiro, do you really believe this is the time to discuss that?" he scolded calmly, hoping to avoid this conversation. One would think that Chiro just asked him where babies come from.

"I can tell it's uncomfortable for you guys, but hear me out." he quietly pressured "Think about it; all of you have been at each other's throats expect for Otto, and now he's puking on himself with a fever. I get the feeling that all of this stress may have something to do with why he's so sick." he quietly explained with a serious tone

Antauri slightly widened his eyes when he thought about what the blue eyed teen was saying "Hmm... You might be right. After all this time, you deserve some answers" he paused to inhale, and began to explain the source of all their dismay "You see-"

"Everyone!" the team was startled out of their seats when the blue simian rammed the med-bay doors open "I have some dire discoveries on Otto's condition." he exclaimed calling the team to a meeting. The three monkeys stood up from their seats and joined Gibson just outside the med-bay, but Chiro grabbed Antauri's shoulder,

"Antauri?" the boy begged his mentor to give him an explanation.

The silver monkey read Chiro's mind through his pleading eyes and softly replied "In a little while, Chiro. I promise." The curious teen hesitated for a moment and muttered sarcastically in frustration "Sure, I waited this long, why stop now?" before he stepped over to the med bay with his comrades.

"How serious is Otto's condition, Gibson?" Antauri asked soothingly.

"Drastic." the genius paused when the female monkey covered her mouth in a gasp, but no one questioned her because they had a feeling she would be right to gasp. "Now bear with me, my friends, this is a lot to explain." he began as he gestured everyone sit at a round table to listen to his diagnosis. "Based on the fever and content of his emesis, I've confirmed that Otto is suffering from minor malnutrition." the team's jaws dropped in shock, baffled that something like malnutrition could happen to the green little simian of all creatures.

"What are you talking about? Is he gonna be alright?" the red pilot questioned anxiously, not knowing what to say for his sick younger brother.

"This shouldn't kill him, but this fever is going to consistently become worse. If not properly treated soon, the fever could evolve into pneumonia." the British primate covered his upper face in dread. Gibson never wanted to see the day that he would diagnose one of his family members with something so deadly, and just the mere thought of failing to help the ill mechanic was slashing his inner spirit to ribbons.

"No." Nova whispered crossing her arms in a shuttering terror

"No." the young leader repeated with a mortified voice. "No. Gibson, he can't go out like this, tell me you can cure him!" he begged as he grabbed the blue monkey's tense, metal shoulders.

Understanding his leader's panic,the intelligent cyborg ignored Chiro's rude grip on his shoulders and simply removed his clammy hands from his small body, "Fortunately, there is. The best way I can help him is if I create a special herbal tea mixed together into an antidote. However, I'm missing one specific herb that's the key ingredient to the cure." he explained to everyone.

The red monkey crossed his arms "And that would be...?" Sparx started with a tone fusing sarcasm and genuineness.

Gibson rose one finger and pulled out a small science textbook and opened to a page with a winter, bullrush like plant with a bright red cat tail. "This." he replied pointed the picture in everyone's direction "An endangered herbal plant known as Rudolph's Blizzard Beacon. Its leaves have adapted to survive in enteral winter, and those leaves and red tail store just the kind of rare and powerful nutrients that should counteract the fever in a matter of days." he described as simply as someone as talkative as him could.

"Okay, so where do we find this it?" asked the yellow warrior.

The simian doctor sighed "That's the difficult part;" he answered as he turned the page to the Sea of Ice. "It's only known habitat is the under the frozen tundras in the mountains of the Sea of Ice. If not for its blaring red top, it would be impossible to find. We'll have to dig through the mountain in order to search for it." he announced reluctantly

"Oh crap. We have to go into those cold mountains?" Nova asked fearing she knew the answer already. She curled into a shivering ball in her seat just thinking about going into all that despicable snow, feeling the icy whip of that freezing wind on her thin layer soft golden fur. However, her fear was quickly converted to confusion as the second in command stood up from his seat and proclaimed

"No, we don't" the remaining four hyperforce members turned to the metal pacifist with puzzled expressions "I'll go to search for those herbs by myself."

The boys and Nova all exclaimed simultaneously "What?!"

Sparx was the first to speak up lying an arm on the table "Antauri, I'm not letting you-" the red smart aleck stopped in his tracks when Antauri rose one hand, silently requesting him to be quiet.

"Due to my transformation, my robot body is completely immune to the mountain's deep freeze, and I can phase through the mountains of snows in order to find the beacon. The safest and simplest option is if I take the Brain Scrambler and go alone." the silver simian explained pleading his case.

After a moment of silence, the team's resident scientist was the first to speak with a hand on his chin and another to his elbow "Hmm... those are extremely valid points. Especially since Otto's in no condition to travel or be left alone."

Nova quickly stepped up in defense, "Maybe, but do you really want to leave anyone alone in that cold?" she debated out of fear for her friend's safety

The silver monkey entered the debated "Ultimately, the choice isn't mine, but our leader's. I won't leave without permission." he said with closed eyes and crossed arms.

"So what'll it be, Kid? It's your call" Sparx asked the question that was on everyone's minds as they turned all to Chiro expecting an answer immediately.

With all of those statements in mind, the young leader looked down in sorrow, now fearing the worst for the primate he considered his father, and he his son. Chiro was very protective of keeping the wise robot after everything he went through to return him to the waking world. That being said, as of now, the guardian of the Hyperforce had a different priority in a suffering, miserable little Otto.

With a hesitant tone, the raven haired replied "Are you sure you can do this alone, Antauri?"

The blue eyed monkey nodded in confirmation, "I believe that would be the best course of action, yes."

With a sigh of relief, the teenage warrior gave his second in command a thumb's up "Then go for it. We're counting on you" he said giving his blessings

Suddenly, Nova stood up and embraced the silver primate in a hug of concern, "Good luck, Antauri." she said aloud.

"Do it for Otto." said the red pilot who put a hand on Antauri's gray shoulder.

"I will," he smiled "but I may need that book so I know where to find the beacon." the robot added. He then held one hand out to Gibson implying that he was asking the blue primate to hand him the thin science textbook.

The intelligent simian caught his sign and handed him the textbook, "Now time is not of the essence, but I insist you return with those herbs as quickly as possible." he requested

"Understood." the wise pacifist replied as he stepped into his respective tube "Farewell, Monkey Team. Take care of Otto, and please stay under control." with that, Antauri flew up to the Brain Scramber and left the team alone to pursue the medicine needed to save Otto's life.

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

 **Yeah, lately I've been so busy and so obsessed with Pokémon Moon, that cut this chapter short again. I promise the next one, we'll get some answers, but just a few. Please leave an honest review and have a Happy Thanksgiving**


	4. The Boiling Point

As soon as their second in command left to execute for his self-assigned mission, the stared into the table for a moment, hoping to find some sort of relief staring into the blank reflection-less, white, wooden round table. Nova, who was standing closest to where Antauri was previously sitting, turned around to her teammates with an expression and voice of pure turmoil "So, what'll we do now?" she asked her fellow teammates.

The raven haired leader quickly spoke up and calmly announced "First things first, I'm going to get changed. I'll make Otto some tea on my way back." he said pointing upstairs with his thumb.

"Very well, Chiro. I see no harm in that. We'll be here with Otto in the mean time." the blue scientist replied while Sparx was standing next to him with his arms crossed

"Yeah, take your time, Kid. We'll be fine for a few minutes." the red pilot waved one hand encouraging the boy to get dressed. With that go-ahead, Chiro walked into his tube and shot himself upstairs to properly dress himself.

Suddenly, everyone was startled by the sound of Otto coughing in pain so loudly that he almost left an echo throughout the robot. The others shot their eyes open as they turned to the med bay and stampeded to the ill monkey's aid. When they enter, Otto's body was on the verge of convulsing, but he fought through all of his weakened muscled in order not to. However, because of all his struggling and wheezing, nobody could tell the difference. He's fighting these spasms so much that he dropped the ice packed for his feverish forehead and the melted ice was all over the floor.

The pink eyed female covered her mouth with quivering hands an began to hyperventilate "W-(gasp) what'll we do?!" she exclaimed in fear as they all rushed to Otto's side. Sparx and Nova quickly grabbed arms in an attempt to lightly restrain him. All the while, the poor ill simian was coughing up a hurricane, trying to breathe, but it hurt too

Meanwhile, the blue primate rushed to his desk and dug through his desk looking for an unknown object. "One of you get him another ice pack, and someone else give him breathing exercises, HURRY!" he shouted as he rapidly digging through his medicinal supplies.

"I'll get the ice!" said the yellow primate as she released the thrashing mechanic, quickly picked up the soggy purple ice pack, and rushed out the door

"You sure, Nova?!" asked the red simian over Otto's cough "You'd be better at the breathing thing than I would!" he grunted from Otto accidentally elbowed him in the chin.

Nova stopped and turned around to her comrade with nearly dampened eyes, "I'm sure... I can't watch this." she croaked as she ran into the kitchen. Back in the med-bay, Sparx was struggling to hold his ill friend onto the table without causing him more pain, as well as ignoring the pain from where the green simian slapped him. Meanwhile, Gibson had found the needle he was looking for, when he acknowledged that the green primate was still having a coughing fit.

"Sparx, what are you doing?!" Gibson shouted as he turned to face his red teammate.

"I don't wanna hurt him!" he shuttered in anxiety "How am I supposed to help him _breathe?!_ "

"Just direct him to take deep slow breaths. Help him relax. You can do it, and hurry." the blue monkey said more calmly in order to help Sparx concentrate on the task at hand.

With those words of encouragement, the red smart aleck slapped himself in the face to shake off the panic. With a more determined express, he stood over the ill simian and ignoring the fact that Otto was almost coughing all over him. "Otto? Otto, Can you hear me?" he uttered softly. Just then, the green simian stopped coughing and began to wheeze with painful pants as he nodded in response

"Alright, I want you to take slow, deep breaths with me. Come on buddy, nice and slow." he directed as Sparx, himself tok, slow, soothing inhales and exhales. However, his breathing exercises didn't appear to be working.

The youngest of the monkey was still gasping and struggling to breathe, then he grabbed the closest arm to him and panted weakly "I (gasp) I can't.." he inhaled and sobbed "M-make it stop-p-p." he cried pulling his quaking body into Sparx's chest.

Just like Nova, the fist rocket pilot couldn't stand watching this anymore, but lucky enough to have to the liberty to leave the room. He started panting to himself as he shouted at the top of his lungs "GIBSON, WHAT THE MONKEY DOODLE ARE YOU DOING!?"

"I'VE GOT IT! HOLD HIS ARM OUT!" the team's genius leaped over the table to the red simian's side as the latter monkey softly pulled Otto's arm out with one hand and held the ill simian's shoulder. With a grunt of adrenaline, Gibson stuck the needle into his friend's shaking arm. The sick green mechanic flinched at the minor sting in his arm. Within a few moments, Otto finally stopped kicking and coughing as his entire body relaxed as the sick little primate passed out where he laid. The red simian stared at Otto's weak body with pure grief in utter disbelief. He couldn't understand why on Shuggazoom this was happening to anyone he cared about.

In an attempt to receive answers, he turned to his fellow fist rocket pilot and questioned in concern, "What'd you do to him?"

Gibson sighed. While he held one hand to his sweating forehead and using the other to put the syringe down on the desk, he replied in sorrow "What I had to. Because of all the pain and stress on his body, I gave him some tranquilizing medicine." he explained as the yellow primate entered the room overhearing with her blue teammate did.

The warrior appeared to be quite shaken up as she placed the ice over the sleeping primate's forehead like a crown. "He's still gonna wake up, right?" she asked nervously

"Why of course he will." the blue pilot was honestly surprised at such a question, "He just won't be able to wake up for a little while. Hopefully, he'll sleep until Antauri returns with those beacons." he replied. The three simians stood over his Otto's resting body as he curled up into a ball.

"Poor Otto." Nova whispered stroking his flush, shimmering cheeks "What could've caused all this?"

The intelligent simian placed a hand on his chin and theorized aloud "Well, malnutrition tends to be the result of an imbalanced diet or simply not giving your body the proper nutritions to support it. I'm still wondering where this sudden irresponsibility came from."

"Something must be upsetting him, Gibson. You can't possibly be blaming him for this." Sparx spoke with a defensive tone

The blue primate was taking back by the red pilot's tone with him "Well, we're warriors. A condition like this can only come from a lack of eating."

"Yeah, but you can't blame him for being sick." Nova exclaimed in frustration

Gibson scoffed "Antauri was right, you are putting words in our mouths." he said getting close to Nova's face, only to have his sarcastic brother pull his shoulder to make them meet eye to eye

"That's not the point, Brainstrain!" he shouted. Then the fighting resumed from before. The red, gold and blue monkeys were just yelling angry, meaningless nonsense at each other as their words clashed together like sharp ice against the ground. In the background, the green patient's slumber clearly wasn't so peaceful anymore. His hands were tensing up as he rolled over on his back mumbling whispers of apparent discomfort.

While the arguing continued with no sign of it ending, the shouting match was suddenly silence by the sound of lightning that crashed down so hard, that the floor almost vibrated. Wait, how could this be? There wasn't a cloud in the sky outside, let alone rain. They all quickly turned their heads to the med-bay's entrance, and their startled expressions soon deteriorated into fear when they saw that it was a lightning kick courtesy of Chiro that caught their attention. The thing that sent tingling shivers down their furry, metal spines was Chiro's body tone. He stood still in the doorway, back straight, with his mouth closed and a rage induced fire piercing through anyone locked in its glare, and the only sense of movement he displayed was the angry breathing of a bull that he was concealing. To the teammate, the raven haired teenager looked like he was ready to exploded, and then, without warning, he did.

 **"THIS IS WHY HE'S SICK!"** he howled in a pitched he'd never reached before, causing the team to flinch in their tracks. "I'M JUST AS SICK OF ALL THIS FIGHTING AS HE IS! Except Otto let it get to a point where it's LITERAL!" the infuriated boy pointed to his friend's quivering body on the med bay table. "Look at him!" the three simian jut stared silently at their feet. Chiro took this as a sign of disobedience and rose his voice again "NO, ALL OF YOU, RIGHT NOW!" he commanded as they all shamefully and slowly turned to face their green comrade. "All of this damn arguing is what made him sick and now you're just making him feel worse!" he scolded his team. He didn't care how harsh he was being to his friends. As of now, he was fed up with those friends and had to be a leader to them, whether they liked it or not.

Gibson finally developed the spine to speak up for the first time since his leader entered the room. "Chiro, I gave him medicine to keep asleep until Antauri returns. Odds are he can't hear a word we're saying." he defended himself

"That's not the point, Gibson! What is going on that I can't even make tea without you guys having a shouting match?!" the three primates just stood there in awkward silence with Chiro towering over them. Nova stared at her feet with her arms crossed and her tail wrapped around her wrist, Gibson hid his face in his metal hand, and Sparx bit his lip and rubbed one hand on the back of his head.

The young leader just grunted and walked over to the sleeping mechanic "I've had enough" he snapped

Nova stepped aside and let Chiro pass but asked quickly, "What are you doing?"

He picked the slumbering monkey and held him in his arms bridal style "I'm taking Otto to his room so he can sleep. Unless it's an emergency, I don't want to see any of you come near him until Antauri gets back. That's an order!"

The others gasped and thought the orange leader was being too hasty. Thus, they tried to stop him "No, Chiro, I need to watch over him in here." said Gibson anxiously

"I can handle it." he said sternly as he didn't seem at to care about what any of them had to say. However, with their behavior over the past week, he didn't feel that they deserved the attention "Like you said, he should out for a while." he slipped past them with little emotion. Just before he stepped out of the lab, the three guilty monkeys rushed in front of him as Nova exclaimed

"No, Chiro! Please. We'll stop fighting, we promise." she pleaded

The young warrior glared down at his teammate,looked down at Otto, and set them straight "Can you promise me, that after an entire week of fighting over every little thing, you three can stand in a room without giving each other so much as a stink eye? For three hours?! After you couldn't control yourselves for five minutes?!"

After that remark, nobody could their enraged leader in eye. Nova stared at the floor while Sparx and Gibson stared off into random directions with guilt painted on their faces like a Renaissance's canvas. With an expression of disgust, Chiro silently walked past them in shame as he stepped into the green tube. He left his fellow Hyperforce member with a stinging pain from their leader's silence of disgrace.

 **(OTTO'S BEDROOM)**

With the sickly simian still asleep in his arms, the blue eyed teen opened the door and let himself into Otto's room. When he entered it, he had to do a double take with the condition it was in, yet only being semi-surprised by the mess considering whose room was in question. All across the floor was junk that to the innocent little cyborg was treasure fitting a pirate; there were nuts, bolts, scrap metal, blueprints, and a plush doll or two scattered across the light blue floor of his bedroom. Odds are it was like this because the silly primate had a habit of staying up late to finish his strange inventions. The raven haired boy couldn't help but chuckle a little bit as he did his best to step over all the small objects so wouldn't trip and/or break anything of his friend's. Lord knows that poor Otto has been through enough stress as it was.

"Jeez" he snickered as he arrived at Otto's bed "You really let your room go, didn't you, Buddy?" he grinned as laid the resting robot on his bed and gave him the ice pack. In silence, Chiro pulled the blanket over the green monkey's shaking body as he laid on soft warm bed. At least he seemed more relaxed than he was in the lab, even if he was still showing signs of discomfort.

"Oh boy." the teenage warrior sighed sitting on the wooden chair next to the bed post. In his despair, he pulled his knees up to his chest and placed his chin over his knees "What's going on, Otto?" he asked rhetorically, knowing that nobody was going to give him an immediate response. "Why are the others so upset lately?" he cocked his head in the slumbering monkey's direction "Is it something with me? Is that why no one's telling me anything? I just want to help you guys, whatever's going on, maybe I can help fix it." after remorsefully pouring out his soul to the sleeping primate, he pulled his knees even closer to himself, nearly up to his damp blue eye on the verge of tears "I just need some answers."

Without warning, Otto's breathing became heavier. He began mumbling to himself and tossing and turning in his sleep. Clearly, he was becoming more and more upset with every passing moment. The orange leader gasped as the word popped into his head, 'Nightmare'. He grabbed Otto's shoulders, attempting to wake him up.

"Shoot!" he muttered. Just now, Chiro remembered the due to Gibson's medicine, the green mechanic couldn't wake up, so he was essentially trapped in his nightmare. The blue eyed boy paced the floor in panic "What am I gonna do?" he exclaimed "He can't take much more stress on his body. How can I stop his...night...mare?" he paused as he looked down into his hand and looked at the green simian. Chiro took a deep breath and thought to himself, "Dream control? Without Antauri?" he debated to himself. However, with everything going on, he couldn't bear to see his friend in anymore pain, so he knew what he had to do. He sat back down in the chair, placed his hands over the ill primate's sweaty temples and whispered "Hold on, buddy, I'm coming." he closed his eyes and entered his friend's nightmare

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**


	5. The Dream

**Chiro had now entered the mind of his sickly comrade, hoping he at least prevent the green simian from feeling worse because of a simple dream. The raven haired human gulped as he walked into Otto's dream void, he was even more nervous about this outcome than his first trial of controlling dreams. Considering he didn't have his silver authority figure to start or end this dream, whatever happened now, would be sculpted with Chiro's mental fingerprints. Once he finally adapted to this illusional universe, he calmly stepped into Otto's dream and was met with a dream stage already started for him**

 _ **The dream started with the green and red furred cyborgs apparently repairing the walls of the training room. Based on its current condition they were just putting the final touches on said repairs. Keeping in mind that no one within the dream could see the dream controller himself, the teenage warrior simply sat on his knees and allowed the dream to take its course for now. He hadn't a chose but watch for a little bit before he could discover what was causing the silly green primate such discomfort.**_

 _ **"You got it?" Otto grunted holding up the last piece of metal to be bolted into the wall. He was pushing the heavy metal rectangle into place with his back and shoulders, frankly, it wasn't one of his brighter moments.**_

 _ **Just as Sparx bolted the final edge of the metal into place he announced over the sound the tool "Annnnd... Done!" he said stepping back to give Otto some space. As if that was a code word for freedom, tired mechanic slid down the wall in an exaggerated fashion and placed the back of his hand over his sweating forehead**_

 _ **"Whoo! Almost two weeks of work. Thanks for all your help, Sparx." he praised the red monkey for his assistance**_

 _ **"He he, no problem, Buddy." Sparx chuckled as he helped Otto to his feet. Then the two of them stood over a nearby table and each took sips out of their water bottles "I guess we make a pretty good team, don't we?"**_

 _ **"Yeah, I guess we do." Otto smiled, but quickly looked into the mouth of his bottle, thinking about the unpleasant incident that lead up to this little heart felt moment, "I just hope Nova doesn't still blame herself for all that damage."**_

 ** _Suddenly, Otto looked up when he heard the crackling sound from a water bottle. He noticed that his fellow handy man had placed his bottle down and was surprised to see his fang-like teeth grinding "Well, let me tell you, that is the last time we ever let Mandarin train any of us alone. It's still making my skin crawl that she even considers it her fault. It was all Mandarin's fault this happened, and he's been guilt tripping her to push the blame off his back!" the red primate ranted in frustration as he paced the floor._**

 **Chiro gasped to himself, "Mandarin?" he whispered, "He's in this dream?" he gave himself a quick chuckle before resuming to watch the dream "No wonder it's a nightmare"**

 _ **As the dream continued, the more naive monkey turned to Sparx and replied "Oh, come on, Sparx. I mean, I guess it did go too far, but you know Mandarin wouldn't hurt any of us of purpose," he defended his leader facing the red simian as well as the door**_

 _ **"Like hell he wouldn't!" he exclaimed "I don't care how 'wise and mature' he is; he's a sexist, manipulative, egotistical little-" his mouth was suddenly muffled by Otto who had an impulsive expression on his face. Just then, the green primate turned his eye contact away from the aggravated pilot to give it to another being who was standing in the doorway.**_

 _ **"Hey, Mandarin. How does the walls look?" the green mechanic smiled. In his head, Sparx thanked Otto for saving him from embarrassment. However, he kept that similar facial expression on as he removed his friend's hand from his mouth, and turned around to give his leader a stink eyed glare from earlier events. The orange simian held both arms behind his back like how authority figures tend to. He walked into the training room with a blank image on his face as he examined the newly repaired training room that Sparx and Otto apparently worked so hard on.**_

 _ **"Hmm..." he said as he slid his hand across the smooth metal wall "Very impressive, gentlemen. There isn't a scratch to be found on this wall." he complimented his teammate with that same expressionless face.**_

 _ **"Thanks, Mandarin!" the green simian replied as the red monkey appeared to be biting his tongue at every word his leader was saying. He knew deep down that Mandarin was truly giving him and Otto a compliment, but there were still quite a few pieces of mind he had to say to his leader.**_

 **Suddenly, the young telepath stood up as he decided he had enough information to work with "So, we've got a creepy kill joy Mandarin. Hm, a little ball gown and lipstick should fix him up." he chuckled at his self-aware immature humor, if he was gonna do this, he might as well have some fun with it, right? He pressed his palms together, closed his deep blue eyes, and inhaled a deep, cleansing breath. A second later, his blue eyes shot open, glowing green in flames as he shot his hands out commanding the dream to take a new form.**

 **Nothing happened. The dream continued exactly the same way.**

 _ **"Yes," he continued "It's almost like Nova was never in here." he spoke with a smug tone of contempt**_

 **"What?" the blue eyed boy lifted an eyebrow in confusion**

 _ **Oh, that was the last straw for Sparx. He smashed his bottle against the floor and brought himself close to the oldest primate "Ya know, you've got some gall blaming her for all of this, you jerk!"**_

 **"Come on, change." Chiro mumbled to himself. He kept trying in vain to take control of the dream, but for whatever reason, his powers weren't even phasing it.**

 _ **"You can't possibly deny that she let her temper go extremely out of control." the orange leader rose his voice in defense**_

 _ **"Yeah, because of you!"**_

 _ **"She could've killed me!"**_

 **This was so stressful for the raven haired telepath. All this tension, lack of control, lack of answers. He closed his eyes, panting, covering his ears, struggling to think over the arguing he was supposed to stop.**

 _ **"You were asking for it, freezing her to death for the sake of some giggles! What, do you get off on making her miserable?!"**_

 _ **Now Mandarin was angry as he brought himself closer to Sparx's face "Why you little-"**_

 **Chiro needed this to stop. There was confusion on top of chaos that he couldn't couldn't control, all he could do was shout "Why can't this dream just PAUSE?!" he exclaimed standing up. Suddenly, his green flame exploded and when he opened his eyes, the dream was silent. Otto, Sparx and Mandarin were now frozen in the middle of their, frankly, uncomfortable quarreling**

 **Chiro widened his eyes in surprise and gazed down into his palms, realizing what he had done. "Huh, well that worked." he chuckled to himself. However, he shook his head to give himself a serious expression to focus on the task at hand. He sat himself down in lotus position, took a deep breath as he began to gather his thoughts out loud.**

 **"Alright." he said rubbing his temples with two fingers as he laid all his thoughts in front of him. "So the tension last night started with Nova's dream. She said of all the dreams Antauri could've picked, he chose that one," he couldn't remember her exact words, but he was presumingly in the ball park. "but now Otto is having a dream about the same incident? That can't be a coincidence. Unless,.." he stopped talking to himself for a moment, until he pieced something together, two pieces to this complex puzzle that suddenly painted an entirely new portrait of this emotional discord "Something about that day has to do with what's going on!" he shot up from his seat as he created the** **explanation to his question. He began to pace the floor to keep his rushing thoughts flowing "There must be more to that incident than Nova told me, and if Otto's dreaming about that time, then I could watch how this dream plays out, and maybe I can help solve the team's problem!" he announced his own plan out loud being sort of proud of it. Chiro pondered this for a second, but then thought to himself.**

 **''Hm, I've got nothing better to do, I guess.' then his body stiffed up as he faced the still frozen illusion of the three arguing simians. The young leader frowned and nodded "It's time I got answers, guys, I wish it didn't have to go this far.' With that thought, his entire body faced the dream stage and thought about how he could undo his rather convenient accident. The blue eyed boy snapped his fingers with an idea; he made a triangle with his fingers, rotated his hand shape ninety** **degrees to the right, and that shape between his fingers began to glow green. Then, he closed one eye, hoping this would work, he lightly inhaled through his nose and commanded the dream to restart "PLAY!" he exclaimed as the dream immediately began again where it left off, He sat down with crossed legs and listened to their conversations closely.**

 _ **Mandarin reached for the red simian's shoulders, most likely to engage in the fight that the latter was provoking. Just as the angry pilot grabbed Mandarin's arms, a shout was hollered between the two monkeys and stopped them in their tracks**_

 _ **"STOP IT!"**_

 _ **he felt one hand harshly push against his upper chest and the force pulled him apart from his muteually enraged leader. They both turned to see an unusually stern looking green primate, who sharply turned his head to face his fellow jokester "Sparx, that was out of line." then he turned to look his orange**_ ** _comrade in the eye, but calmly sighed before speaking "Listen, Mandarin, I've been talking with Sparx. I know you were training Nova, but that cold really could've made her sick, and I think it would make her feel a lot better if you apologized to her." he lightly smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Don't you think so?"_**

 ** _Once again, the oldest monkey rolled his eyes as there was something to the way Otto could negotiate that nobody who knew him well could resist. As much as he resented the idea of apologizing to anyone, to some extent, if he was going to keep peace within is own team, the youngest member had a very cogent yet simple point "Very well. I supposed it wasn't entirely her fault. Keep up the good work, boys, I'll apologize to her first chance I'm given." he said with a somewhat awkward tone of voice, as if he desired to leave the_** ** _conversation as soon as possible. With both arms behind his back, he walked out of the newly repaired training room in his typical_** ** _pretentious manner._**

 **In the background, Chiro dropped his jaw halfway, amazed by how quickly the proclaimed silliest Hyperforce member prevented a fight as quickly as it started. "Where were you the past week, Otto?" he commented to himself. Never until he saw that very scene did the current first-in-command realized just how good the mechanic was at making everyone smile, keeping everyone's hand on their backs as oppose to on their throats, it may not've been long term spiritual wisdom like Antauri, but that short term, slice of life words of advice were** **equally important. That was made apparent between everything that's happened this past week in the real world, and the brawl between Sparx and Mandarin that thankfully never happened courtesy of Otto, of all characters.**

 ** _Once he was gone, the red pilot took a step back and Otto faced him once again "Otto, I can't imagine where you got that from." the sarcastic_** ** _simian chucked as he placed a hand on the green cyborg's shoulder._**

 ** _Otto smiled at him with a thought "Probably from Antauri." he replied in a quick chuckle, but Sparx didn't waste time grounding them back to their serious conversation,_**

 ** _"but seriously, Buddy, something's been up with him. I know you're really close with him, and I don't want to think about it either, but keep an eye on him."he pointed a finger up to display his case to his friend._**

 ** _Otto looked down at his feet. Internally, he was in denial that anything was changing within his good friend and leader. However, that line ''_** _ **It's almost like Nova was never in here" what more proof did Sparx need to prove his point? Nova was such an intimidating primate to be around, but a loving one none the less. She **_**didn't need this condescending guilt tripping whisper over her shoulder, especially since it wasn't her fault by any sense of the word. It wouldn't go on,** ** _they wouldn't let it, "I hope you're right about this, Sparx. Me and the others trust Mandarin with our lives."_**

 ** _The red simian knew this well, so he place a caring, tight grip on Otto's shoulder, looked him in the eyes with a face as straight as a blade and replied somberly "I wouldn't question him if I didn't have to." with that, the boys exited the room_** **leaving Chiro alone to question where this story would go from there.**

Alright. So now we're finally getting some answers on what's going on. Chiro is going to watch the events that occur in the dream memory, almost like time traveling. I hope this scenario makes sense. I need 100% honest reviews and thoughts from you guys and tell me if I need to improve anywhere. Merry Christmas and all those holidays and Happy New Years

I DON'T OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!


	6. A Suspicious Apology

Sparx, Nova and Gibson stood still in a shameful moment of silence, afraid to look behind themselves worrying that their infuriated leader was still glaring at them in disgust. It was humiliating, what just happened; the three of them being scolded and shout at like children by a fourteen year old. What should they be embarrassed about, though? It's not like they didn't deserve such a bashing after all that's occurred this past week. What Chiro said to them really opened their eyes to how they've been behaving. It's as if the raven haired teen had performed some sort of exorcism on the loathsome, abominable demon that possessed all three of them, as well as Antauri, into quarreling with each other. In disgust, the yellow simian quickly dashed a few feet from where they were standing, covering her mouth with heavy breaths and pressing her eyes as tightly shut as possible. Sparx and Gibson, on the other hand, just stared at each other in disbelief.

"What in the Hell bound devil have we done?" Gibson muttered in shame and guilt. Like the others, now that he saw how they had been acting, they couldn't believe that they were acting in such a way.

Nova now had her hand leaning on the wall to support her silently panting body "Chiro's right." she said in a tone of terrifying realization "We did this."

Sparx stepped up to her "Nova, everyone gets sick, this isn't-"

"Yes it is!" she emotionally exclaimed turning to both of them once again "Otto could tell that all this arguing was pointless! Why couldn't we?!" she was on the verge of tears, but she was able to suck it up to continue "We didn't want to talk about what happen today, but he needed to!"

Gibson somberly continued with Nova's point "We spent all that time taking that frustration out on each other, while Otto took it all out on himself." the blue monkey stepped over to the main room's round table to sit down and lay out his thoughts. He laid his elbows on the table and hid his face in his hand, and continued with a rising tone "He saw what ignoring our feelings was doing to us, and that made him ignore his own _health._ Why did we ever keep this a secret from Chiro?!" he banged his fist on the table, angry with the others, but mostly himself for being so illogical.

"Because it hurt so much." the red monkey softly replied sitting next to his intelligent comrade, "That feeling about what happened hurt so much that.. I-..I guess we couldn't ignore it, and I took it out on you guys." he added as his voice cracked. "I...I-I'm sorry, guys." the pilot apologized as he looked at both of the other two monkeys separately.

"No, I was the worst. I'm sorry too." the pink eyed warrior said standing next to where Sparx was sitting

"We're all in this guilty party, Nova." Gibson replied modestly "I hope you two can forgive me."

"Oh, screw us." Nova firmly responded with a blunt tone as she sat down next to the red cyborg "How are we ever gonna make this up to Chiro? How do we even explain this to him?! Will he even listen?!" she exclaimed in the form of a panicked question

Gibson sighed "With small, simple steps. First, Otto recovers, and we give Chiro all the answers he's been asking for."

"That sounds fair." Sparx nodded in agreements

"Agreed." Nova quickly replied. "but first things first, I think we need to work things out with ourselves."

 **(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 **The conversation between the three simians had just ended. Sparx and Otto walked out of the training room, and suddenly, the dream began to change. Chiro gasped and covered his face as the scene blindingly bright, rendering everything blurry, and it was somehow windy. A powerful blast of wind came and went within the same seconds. When the** **telepathic leader then opened his eyes to reveal that the dream was in an entirely different scene. Seemingly the same day, but later on.**

 **"Whoa" Chiro gasped putting his arms down, "This dream kinda has control of itself. Sweet." he quickly grinned for a moment before watching over the next scene of this dream.**

 _ **The dream had cut to a scene with Gibson, Antauri, Otto, and Nova sitting together in the black primate's bedroom. This would be a common routine every other day since Nova's outburst in the training room; she would join Antauri in his room for anger management and meditation sessions. While Gibson and Otto sat along with them, with her blessing of course, a**_ ** _nalyzing Nova's breathing patterns and perhaps discover the source of the mysterious flame that erupted from her body on that very day. After a few moments of quiet discussion during the meditation session, the yellow cyborg opened her eyes, and turned to face the two primates on the sidelines._**

 ** _"Any luck, guys?" she sighed waking up from her trance_**

 ** _"Sorry, Nova. We've got nothin'." Otto unfortunately replied as they both looked up from the monitors analyzing Nova breathing and stress levels_ _._**

 ** _"I've always found you to be a rather fascinating associate, Nova, but to word this appropriately, this has me absolutely stumped._ _" said the more proper monkey with two fingers on one temple to help him ponder. "I simply can't imagine the origin of your radiated flame of anger." he explained with a curious tone. Ever since the accident, all of them, especially the British monkey, had been digging to the bone for answers on the female's mysterious outburst, but to no avail._**

 ** _This is when the black furred simian spoke up, "What I find concerning is the possibility that the heat could've been created by the Power Primate; perhaps a new page in its mystery that only Nova has recently discovered within herself." Antauri_** ** _theorized._**

 ** _"If it is, than I can't imagine how none of us have discovered it beforehand." the blue primate added with a questioning expression._**

 ** _"Because none of you have anger issues like I do?" Nova rhetorically asked quickly with a shameful tone, referring to_** ** _herself. She stared down into her lap, afraid to face any of her comrades in the eye._**

 **Chiro was surprised by what the third in command was saying, only now did he realize how serious those were on her psyche. "Ah, come on, Nova, don't say that." he begged leaning in, despite knowing that no one** **could see or hear him. A fact that would always be hard for the teenage leader to accept, not being able to do anything.**

 ** _Gibson and Otto almost dropped what they were holding and somberly started at each other. Despite being two weeks ago, nobody could blame the golden female for her guilt, but it was still unsettling. Nova was never seen so hard on herself before, now the boys were beginning to wonder if this disheartened stage of emotion would affect her in combat, or even her personality. That they couldn't allow. The pacific monkey levitating over her placed a comforting hand on her metal shoulder and said to her_**

 ** _"Nova, we've been over this," he began speaking sternly but very gingerly and softly. His voice caught her attention as the depressed simian sadly looked her second in command in the eye ", please understand that what happened that day was-"_**

 ** _"Not your fault." Antauri's pleasant tone was cut off by a much sharper tone of voice that was equally unmistakable._**

 **Chiro gasped as the voice startled him**

 ** _The three male simians turned to the door to see Mandarin standing there, while Nova cringed and didn't turn, refusing to face the orange primate. The green_** ** _mechanic took a mental note that his leader's body tone appeared to be much more relaxed than it was during their conversation earlier that day._**

 ** _"Oh, Mandarin." the black simian greeted him with a smile, "To what do we owe the pleasure?"_**

 ** _Still with her back turned to Mandarin, looked at Gibson and Otto, made low air quotes to them and silently mouthed 'pleasure' to the both of them. There were actually three different reactions; Chiro chuckled out loud, the British primate held a snicker and smile under his breath and the silly green_** ** _monkey honestly didn't understand what she was implying._**

 ** _The orange monkey cleared his throat "Well, I was hoping to speak with Nova." he maturely responded. Even without facing her, Mandarin could still tell that the female cyborg was giving him a dirty look from behind her back._**

 ** _With a light growl, Nova finally spoke up without giving that jerk the satisfaction of eye contact "About what? That I should apologize to Sparx and Otto for fixing my mess?" she rhetorically asked, expecting the oldest primate to lecture her again. However, that's not what happened._**

 ** _"Actually," he paused, stepping closer to her, "You're not the one who needs to apologize." that statement made the hot head sit up quickly as she turned to him in disbelief. Antauri and Gibson were also rather surprised by this_** ** _development, the only one who wasn't taken back by Mandarin's implied gesture the youngest simian himself. The green cyborg smiled and gave Mandarin a proud thumb's up for doing the right thing in making Nova feel better. Paying little mind to the naive simian, Mandarin stepped even closer to the yellow primate, "Nova," he continued, sitting down in front of her and next to where Antauri was floating, "I've thought about what happened during that training session, and I suppose I did take it too far."_**

 **"Hmm, it took him this long to realize that?" Chiro said stubbornly, not buying it in the least.**

 _ **"I'm sorry if I hurt you in anyway." the leader said with a shockingly genuine tone.**_

 _ **The yellow female just stared for a moment, quite literally having no clue how she should react, considering Mandarin apologizing for anything was about as common as finding gold, "You... you are?" she asked speechlessly for conformation**_

 _ **"Yes," he nodded humbly "I didn't consider your safety, and I could've really hurt you, and I'm sorry for that." even after all o** **f those kind words, Nova, as well as the others, had trouble believing their ears. As if the orange leader**_ ** _apologizing for anything_ _wasn't_** ** _bizarre enough, he had shown no signs of remorse for what occurred on the day in question._**

 ** _All the pink eyed fighter_** ** _could do was blink and stammer in response, "Um... gee. Thanks, Mandarin. I-I wasn't expecting this from you." she looked up and lightly smiled. Although her lack of words for how to say thank you. "That makes me feel a lot better." In the background, Otto was giving Nova a big smile behind the leader's back, while Gibson and Antauri looked at each other in revelation over Mandarin's unusually pleasant gesture of modesty._**

 **The raven haired boy, who was still sitting cross legs watching the events unfold, sat up in his seat in suspicion and potential** **discomfort "Man, what is he up to?" Chiro mumbled to himself, struggling to figure out the motive of their former ally. All he knew was that there was an** **alternate motive to Mandarin's kindness. The thing that troubled him the most was his uncertainty on whether or not the rest of the team was** **suspicious of the sly simian's actions. Chiro did remember how cunning this cyborg was to him upon their first encounter. "I mean, two weeks later and now he's saying sorry?"**

 _ **"Well, Mandarin, I'm delightfully impressed by your change of heart." the blue monkey finally spoke up with a grin.**_

 _ **"That can be said for all of us." chuckled the wisest primate standing next to Mandarin,**_ ** _complimenting his leader._**

 ** _Otto hopped at him and put a proud, playful arm over Mandarin's shoulder, "See, buddy? That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked playfully_**

 ** _The orange monkey chuckled as he lightly pushed Otto's arm off of him, "I simply wish I apologized sooner. Actually, Nova, how would you like me to show you how I keep my head under pressure?"_**

 ** _Nova lightly gasped at this, "Really?" she exclaimed with a grin "That'd be great." she was more than happy to learn better methods to control her anger, and thus protecting her friends at all times._**

 ** _"Yeah, I've got somethings that could help you relax too!" added Otto._**

 ** _This caused the pacifist to laugh a bit, "Alright, alright. You two can stay, but just for this one session." he held up both hands, signaling the green primate to calm down._**

 ** _"Oh, the more, the merrier I suppose." the blue simian_** ** _shrugged it off in exchange for the sake of a little fun._**

 ** _"Alright, where do we start?" Mandarin asked sitting to Nova as the five Hyperforce members began to discuss emotions and anger management methods, apparently having a good time._**

 **Chiro looked on at this scene as it slowly began to fade to another, giving him time to gather his thoughts. How much more of this past time will he have to watch? How does Mandarin affect what's going in the present day, and what can he do to fix the tension between his friends and teammates? All he could do now is continue watching to see how this story unfolds.**

HEY

sorry this took so long, but there's a few things I need to discuss.

1\. This chapter was getting long and tiring, so I'm sorry I cut it off there. I have a first draft for the next scene planned out, I just need to edit.

2\. I may've written myself into a corner; Otto wasn't originally in the scene where Mandarin was apologizing, but then I realized, "How could Chiro see this from Otto's memory if Otto himself wasn't there?" So I was kind of stuck with him there. Don't worry, it took a while, but I found a way around this issue without Otto being shoehorned into every scene, which you'll see in the next two chapters or so.

3\. I need a totally honest review for anyone giving one. I personally feel like my pacing and grammar is getting worse, but I think this story is coming along very smoothly.

4.I'm sorry if there's too many confusing plot points. I guess I started doing what Steven Universe ind of does; use one plot point to subvert the audience and get to another one, but tell me if this becomes a problem.

5\. I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!


	7. And so it Begins

**(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 **It was apparently the next day in Otto's dream, the day after Mandarin staged that apology to Nova. The teenage bystander uncovered his eyes from the flash that revealed the next scene, for lack of a** **better term. This time, the dream was now taking place in Otto's bedroom. Chiro took note of the scene having taken it all in.**

 **"Huh, this can't be the same room I just walked into." the young warrior chuckled to himself. It was simply** **humorous to see how for him to see what the green cyborg's room looked like back then compared to the war zone it was now. However, he began watching this new scene.**

 ** _The dreamer in question was simply sitting by his bedroom desk, alone in his room. He was digging through bits of nuts and bolts and so forth_** ** _reorganizing them by size and functions. The green simian was humming the Eagles'_ Witchy Woman _to himself, doing all of this with an adorable little smile. When all of a sudden, there was a knock at their door._**

 **Chiro turned his head to see who was knocking at Otto's bedroom door "Oh, this should be rich." he groaned sarcastically**

 _ **The mechanic turned halfway in his chair finding his orange leader standing in the doorway. "Oh hey, Mandarin." he greeted him with a smile "What's up?"**_

 _ **"Oh nothing." he replied as he stepped into Otto's room with his arms crossed. "I was just wondering what you were up."**_

 _ **Otto didn't think much of this since the orange primate usually checked on him when he spent an extended amount of time alone in his room, "I've been organizing this scrap metal I found on Ranger 7. I hit the mother load of building materials the other day." he explained gleefully as he tossed a few more bolts into their specific areas, when Mandarin stepped over to the green monkey to continued their conversation.**_

 _ **"Ha, I can see that." he replied with a chuckle "You've certainly been keeping yourself busy lately." he added that**_ ** _compliment smoothly_**

 ** _"Aw, thanks, buddy." Otto blushed over his leader's praising words But it's really no problem, I like being helpful to you guys. It always makes me happy for some reason." he replied very modestly as he continued organizing his new building materials._**

 ** _"Aw yes." Mandarin added before pausing for a moment. Once he spoke again, that's when things became interesting "Say, Otto, do you ever consider yourself to be more than just 'helpful?' " he asked putting air quotes around that final word._**

 **In the background, Chiro rose an eyebrow to** **the way the suspicious simian phrased that last sentences "What is this creep have up his sleeves now?" he asked himself**

 ** _Otto was a bit off put by that question, simply because of how confused it made him. "What are you talking about?" he asked turning to face his leader for an explanation._**

 ** _Mandarin grinned as he bean to work his magic. He leaned one arm on the chair and explained "Well, based on your tone, it seemed like you don't think very highly of yourself. Almost as if you saw yourself as a servant."_**

 ** _Now the green cyborg was even more confused, "Servant?" he tilted his head in_** ** _curiosity "I've never felt like a servant, and nobody treats me like one."_**

 **"You're damn right we don't." Chiro remarked in frustration**

 ** _"Well, externally." the orange monkey added_**

 ** _"Huh?" Otto asked innocently_**

 ** _This caused Mandarin to chuckle under his metal palm, "Oh, Otto, it's just...the way you're always so generous to everyone, it's adorable. The problem is that when someone does it as often as you do, there's just that constant mindset in the back of their heads, and we both know that's not the case." he explained with a sly, manipulative tone of voice_**

 ** _As their conversation continued, the young hearted frequently becoming more uncomfortable and confused as it went on. However, he tried to swallow those unpleasant feelings and denied Mandarin's statement "Ah, don't be silly, Mandarin. I know the others know I'm smarter than I usually act. Besides, I'd know if anyone was being mean to me."_**

 ** _"Exactly," Mandarin countered as the black haired telepath leaned his arm_** ** _suspiciously between his chin and knee, "the only person who doesn't see your potential is you. Honestly, what would this Robot be without someone with your abilities?" he asked with a mysteriously slender expression_**

 ** _This was getting stranger by the minute, Mandarin never spoke to him like this before. Antauri might talk like this, but when the black primate did, it was encouraging and soothing. Otto couldn't quite_** ** _identify what Mandarin was trying to do in this case, "I-I guess I've been working kinda work upgrading the Super Robot's weapons system." Otto replied uncomfortably rubbing the back of his head_**

 **"You always have." added Chiro**

 _ **"and if we don't have a mechanic, then what does Shuggazoom have in terms of defense?" the orange cyborg rhetorically asked**_

 _ **Otto sat himself up a few inches in his seat. On the one hand, Mandarin was seemingly giving him praise for all his hard work, but just the way he was saying and wording it was rather ominous. The green simian never saw himself as useless, but neither did he see himself on as high of a pedestal as his leader was suddenly placing him on. He maybe the team's mechanic, but he wasn't the only one with such skills "Gee, Mandarin, is that what you guys really think of me?" he asked in response to these flooding thoughts.**_

 _ **"If you're referring to your importance on the Hyperforce, then yes." Mandarin grinned, hoping that Otto was understanding where he was going with this**_

 _ **"Oh,..." the young monkey paused in thought and looked down at his feet. However, when he spoke again, "Thanks, Mandarin!" he exclaimed with a genuinely happy smile.**_

 ** _Mandarin's eyes popped open even wider, "What?"_**

 ** _"Man, I'm so lost right now." Chiro mumbled to himself as he crossed his arms_**

 ** _"All this time, I thought I wasn't doing enough for you guys, but all of that was really assuring." he replied cheerfully as he put down the remaining scrap metal in his hand._**

 ** _Mandarin tried to explain hastily "Otto, that wasn't exactly what I-" suddenly, he was interrupted by a loud vibrating on the left edge of Otto's desk. The green monkey reached off the side of his chair and grabbed his vibrating communication_**

 ** _"This is Otto." he announced into it, waiting for a_** ** _response_**

 ** _"Hey, buddy, it's Sparx." the answer he got was got from the red primate, "Listen, I remember you said you wanted to cook dinner, right? Well, I'm about to start when you're ready."_**

 ** _"Oh! Alright, let me just wash up, I'll be down in a sec." he replied as he hung up his communicator and stood up from his seat. "Thanks for the pep talk, Chief." he said to his leader once again "See you at dinner."_**

 ** _"Otto, hold on!" the oldest simian tried in vain to stop him as Otto gave him one last wave good-bye as he ran out of his own bedroom. Chiro stood up as well to follow the green simian downstairs, but something else occurred._**

 ** _Just as Otto made it into the hallway, he yelped in pain and sat next to his bedroom door, leaning against the room. While hissing under his teeth, he puled his foot up_** ** _to his chest to reveal that he merely stepped on little rusty screw that was on the floor. "Aw, dang it." he muttered under his breath in frustration He wasn't bleeding, the surprise of the impact just made it more painful than it actually felt. He knew enough about First aid from Gibson to know that all that little mark needed was a band-aid._**

 ** _However, he suddenly overheard Mandarin's voice from his. The orange simian was talking out loud to himself in a way that Otto could tell no one else was meant to hear._**

 ** _"(sigh) Hopefully, the others won't be as hard to persuade." he mumbled out loud. Otto silently gasped to himself based on what he had just heard._**

 **Chiro gasped at this well, "P** **ersuade?** **" he asked himself "What the heck is he doing?** _ **Otto starting thinking the same thing**_ ** _'persuade?_** _ **' he thought to himself. What could the orange**_ ** _primate trying t_** ** _'persuade_** ** _' him and others to do? All he knew for now is that he probably probably wasn't supposed to hear that. So when he heard Mandarin's footsteps heading towards the door, the green simian quickly leaped into another doorway and hid himself until Mandarin left, going in the other direction. Once the coast was clear, Otto stood up from his seat, scratched his head suspiciously, and made his way downstairs, hoping to forget what he just heard._**

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Hope you enjoyed this, I just wanted to get something out for you guys ASAP


	8. Conversations

**(REALITY)**

While everything in Otto dream was going on, Nova, Gibson, and Sparx were sitting together in the round table and decided to begin doing what they should have been doing; communicating with each other. It was time they finally released their feeling and thoughts in a mature and calm way that supported one another

"So... where do we start?" Nova asked, playing with her metal thumbs

"Well, it's bizarre." the red simian replied, hoping to get the ball rolling "After all the terrible things he's done to us, I still get this empty feeling in my gut when I realize he's not here."

"That's how I feel." the female primate added in agreement

"Me too," Gibson added his two cents in the conversation for the first time.

"But why?" Nova asked bluntly

With a sigh and a chin on his finger, the blue scientist replied "That's something I've been pondering for quite sometime myself."

"You got some of that 'pondering' to share, Gibson?" Sparx asked with a snicker in his voice

This caused Nova to chuckle as well, "Oh, you and Mandarin used to challenge each other to see who could make the most smart-ass comments like that, remember?" she asked pointing to the red pilot

"Oh, yeah, he he he, ah man, the hot water those would get me in." all three of them began to chuckle out loud in having those memories

That's when it hit him; Gibson lightly gasped to himself in realization, discovering the solution to a problem they were trying to ignore. How could someone as brilliant as himself not see this earlier. Before speaking, he breathlessly pointed to Nova, and once the laughing toned down, he then spoke up in realization "That."

"'That' what?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"That's why we carry so much remorse for his betrayal," he explained, "because we undeniably shared some buoyant times while he was still with us."

"Like?" the red smart aleck questioned with an attitude

The British primate took a minute to think of a past incident to prove his point. He snapped his fingers once one came to him "Oh, there was that time where he and Antauri got into that chess match and-"

"Oh my gosh!" Nova gasped blissfuly "I remember that!" she began laughing even louder just as the thought of the occurrence Gibson was referring to

"Wait..." Sparx paused in thought as he started catching on to the story "you mean the time Antauri beat him in like twenty moves and he was being a brat about it?" he grinned

"Yes." replied Nova. Just then, they all started laughing out loud reminiscing over those pleasant memories of their past

Nova breathlessly continued the story "Oh, oh and he made Antauri keep playing for ten straight games _,_ aw man, un-until he just quit and flipped the chair!" she blushed with laughter, they were all losing control of their cackling

"He just couldn't do it, it was insane!" Sparx added while holding his chest. When leaning his head on the table, struggling to control himself, he pointed over to a hysterical Gibson "I lost it when Antauri let you win in exactly twenty turns just to piss him off!" they all laughed so hard that were struggling to breath, but they didn't care because this was the most fun they've had in the last week

"it was fifteen moves but who's counting!?" Gibson exclaimed doing an exaggerated impersonation of their former leader, and all three of them were laughing their tails off so hard, they almost fell out of their seats, and after laughing on for a few more moments, Nova continued the conversation with another memory

"Oh, oh what about the time where Gibson and Otto tried to make their own smoke bombs, which ended up being paint bombs and-"

"They exploded on the three of us when Mandarin set them off?!" Gibson interrupted as he began to howl with laughter, soon followed by the red and yellow primates chuckling along with him

Sparx carried on with the new tale, with an ear to ear grin "You three looked like your were attacked by hippies!"

"That would've been more pleasant than the glare Mandarin was giving us! AH HA HA HA HA!" Gibson was leaning back in his chair and Nova was banging her fist on the table, they were having such a hard time controlling their laughter.

"Who could tell over all that clown makeup?!" Nova couldn't even finish her sentence between the boys' laughing and her own. All they did for a while was continue their reminiscing of the good times they had with their former leader and comrade.

 **(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 _ **The next day in the dream world, Otto merely decided to go on with his day after his talk with Mandarin. He was humming Pieces of Eights by Styx as he walked down the hallway, on his way to the training room with his rusty gray toolbox. There were a few more repairs he had to make in there that he'd meant to for a while.**_

 **"Huh, Styx, I love that band," Chiro thought to himself as he kneeled down in the background, preparing watch this new scene in the dream**

 _ **Once in there, the green cyborg was met with Nova, who was training with herself using a large orange punching bag. Oddly enough, she looked**_ ** _subliminally upset under her frustrated facial expression as she proceeded to punch and kick denses into the punching bag._**

 ** _With a single eyebrow risen in concern, Otto called her name to get her attention "Nova?"_**

 ** _She blinked and turned towards the voice, "Oh, hey Otto." she somberly replied as she leaned onramp on the punching bag. I was just having some time to myself in here."_**

 ** _"Oh," Otto brought his innocent smile back on his face "well, do you mind if I just replace some bolts in the air ducts? They're getting too rusty and could give out at any time." he requested of her rather politely_**

 ** _"Go ahead." she nodded_**

 ** _"Thanks, it'll take a little while, but don't worry, you'll forge I'm here." he promised as he walked up to her_**

 ** _"Actually, Otto, before you do, we need to talk." she grabbed his shoulder before he could walk past her_**

 ** _"What?" the green simian asked with curiosity_**

 ** _"Um..." she didn't quite know where to begin "You see, I was talking with Sparx last night, right?"_**

 ** _"Yeah,..." Otto wasn't sure where the yellow female was going with her case, and neither was Chiro. On top of that, Otto found himself somewhat off put by her voice and body tone. If he couldn't tell something was bothering her before, it was crystal clear now._**

 ** _"And when I brought up Mandarin..." she paused again as the yellow cyborg began to pace the floor_**

 ** _"Uh-huh?" Otto nodded, despite being very confused._**

 **"Oh boy, Sparx busted him, didn't he?" Chiro said to himself as he was starting to follow along with Nova's point**

 _ **"he told me that Mandarin was still blaming for the accident in here until**_ **you** ** _called him out on it._** **"** ** _she explained to him sternly_**

 ** _Otto bit his lip and looked down on his feet in embarrassment. The green cyborg didn't want to say anything to Nova, hoping that now their leader had apologized to her. However, there was certainly no avoiding the conversation now_**

 ** _He quietly spoke up, rubbing the back of his head "I-I guess he sort of-"_**

 ** _"Otto, I want you to be a hundred percent honest with me," she stepped much closer to him with an agitated, interrogating finger pointing towards his chest, "Was Mandarin still blaming me until you talked to him?" she questioned with a tone was going to change no matter the mechanic's response was. Otto gulped in awkwardness and pressure. As much as he was denying Mandarin's questionable actions, he was guilty as the yellow female charged_**

 ** _Knowing what Nova was capable of when provoked, he knew he had to at least give her some sort of response, "...When you put it that way.."_**

 ** _That was all Nova needed to hear. She crushed her fist together and took in a long deep breath, "Should've known." she muttered and turned back around to her punching bag,_**

 **"Called it," Chiro mumbled to himself with a frown, Lord knows he wasn't happy that he "called it"**

 _ **"After two whole weeks of guilt tripping, why would suddenly apologize now?" she rhetorically asked in frustration and despair "Anything to make himself look better compared to me, apparently." she added with another bang on the punching bag.**_

 _ **The green simian frowned and wanted to console his only female friend and**_ ** _teammate, "Listen Nova,-"_**

 ** _"Just.. do what you have to, buddy. I really need some quiet time." she interrupted him and asked to be alone. The pink eyed simian could feel herself begin to build in anger and she didn't want to risk taking it out on her friend by continuing the conversation about her leader._**

 **The teen in the background couldn't stand seeing Nova this way. He was sure as hell doing to give Mandarin a hard kick in face during their next encounter**

 ** _With that, Otto exhaled in sadness and flew up to the air ducts to do his repairs while Nova continued her silent practice session_**

 **(TEN MINUTES LATER)**

 _ **Once he was over halfway done with the bolt replacements, Otto was ready to finish his work when all of a sudden, he heard a new sound arise from under the air ducts, the last voice that should be there right now**_

 _ **"Why, hello there, Nova" the voice walking into the room happened to be none other Mandarin**_

 **"The guy really likes his entrances, doesn't he?" Chiro mumbled under his breath crossing his arms**

 _ **Nova was facing away from the door when**_ ** _Mandarin walked in. After her talk with Otto, she was no mood to give him the satisfaction of looking him in the face "What do you want?" she rudely questioned as she resumed kicking the bag rhythmically_**

 ** _Based on Nova's tone, the green cyborg knew this could get ugly, but he was practically getting deja vu from when the orange simian began talking to him like this. He decided to stay hidden and listen to what Mandarin told the angry simian_**

 ** _The pretentious monkey waited a moment for Nova to face him, but that turned out to be a waste of thirty seconds "Would you like to stop hitting that bag so we can talk?" he questioned with a relaxed expression_**

 ** _"I don't know," she replied sounding just as upset as before "I need to punch something and there's only one other hard, orange target nearby." she implied that she could either punch the orange bag, or Mandarin._** **Chiro covered his mouth with a chuckle, in his head thought, "That's gotta burn."**

 ** _After that implication, the oldest cyborg cleared his throat "Alright, I don't think you have the right to talk to your leader in that tone." he softly scolded_**

 ** _"So?" she exclaimed without facing him "I don't care if you're the Hyperforce's leader, you can't treat me like the way you've been for the past two weeks."_**

 ** _While crossing his arms, Mandarin replied "Nova, I apologized to you the other day, what more would you like from me?" he asked in a strange tone. Something about his tone sounded rather somewhat calm and sly. Not that Nova noticed it since she was trying to tune him out_**

 ** _"Oh save it." she grunted while giving the bag a hard spin kick "I talked to Sparx last night, I know you only said all that stuff to me because Otto told you to. I'll bet you still blame from everything that happened, don't you?" she growled while sucker punching the bag_**

 ** _In his mind, the orange monkey grinned, knowing that his plan was in motion, but externally his expression his completely blank, "Like you don't?" he asked smugly_**

 ** _The golden warrior paused at that last sentence. However, she shook it off and kept beating up the large, orange bag. She had to, there was no way she was going to show that jerk any signs of anger or weakness_**

 **Chiro crushed his fist into his palms in anger and growled, "This is really starting to piss me off." he said to himself. The current Monkey Team leader hated not being able to do anything, but the whole time he kept in mind that everything he was seeing was all in the past.**

 _ **Mandarin suddenly became much more passive aggressive for whatever reason "You've been awfully quiet since that event, Nova, I mean not that I'm complaining."**_

 _ **Otto dropped his jaws at the insult. Mandarin and Nova got along alright, but he never spoke to anyone on the team like that before**_

 _ **Nova almost did a double take after that comment, she could've blown up at Mandarin right there, but contained herself by putting Antauri's lessons to good use. Even still, has yet to look him in the face since the conversation began**_

 _ **"Oh cute," she replied attempting to hide her rage, "did you rehearse this little skit, you seem proud of it." she added with a knee kick to the bag's center**_

 _ **"A little bit." he smiled softly "It's better than acting out of impulse." Nova had to stop her workout after catching that implication.**_ **In the backgrounds, Chiro and Otto gasped at same time, neither of them believing what they were hearing.** _ **With her eyes facing the floor, she leaned her head and ands on the punching bag and tried to take very deep breaths over sneering teeth**_

 _ **"I... am not... impulsive." she defended herself in a tone of anger and distraught as her light breathing was suddenly growing heavier and heavier, to the point where Otto could feel her discomfort from up in the air ducts**_

 _ **"Oh of course not, my dear." he sounded extremely smug now, it clear to Chiro and Otto that he was doing this on purpose. "Why would I imply anything that reminds you of your weaknesses. We've all got them, although some more blatant than others." he was taunting her at this point and getting a sick thrill out of it. She couldn't do it, she couldn't tune him out anymore. The pink eyed**_ ** _monkey began shivering with the pressure of concealing every ounce of her tempered emotions. She was grinding her teeth and clawing her fingers into the punching bag._**

 **As much as Chiro wanted to see this asshole get mauled, he knew Nova would be crushed if she lost control of herself after everything that's happened, "Calm down, Nova, you're much stronger than him."**

 ** _After letting her anger build for a moment, the manipulative primate spoke up mellow dramatically, "Oh my, is it suddenly getting warmer in here?" he pretended to use his right hand as a fan to express his point._**

 ** _Nova suddenly gasped, stepped back from the punching bag and covered her face to snap herself out of the tidal wave of irritation. She than uncovered her face to reveal that due to her anger, she'd actually burnt two holes in the bags where her hands were latched onto. The holes were still steaming from the heated fabric, the hinges of the holes were crispy and impaled through the bag. Then, for the first time in this unpleasant conversation, she turned around to face him with tears threatening to break free. Not tears of sorrow, merely tears of stress_**

 ** _"What is he doing?" Otto muttered to himself, feeling fear and discomfort for his fellow foot crusher pilot_**

 ** _"What do you get out of doing this to me?" she asked in anger_**

 ** _This didn't stop Mandarin from playing these mind games, "Doing what?" he asked with a false voice of naively_**

 ** _"This!" the yellow female widened her arms at him, "Using these condescending mind games to make me blow a fuse! Are you trying to make me explode?!" she shouted in demand for an answer, making Chiro and Otto cringe in discomfort. Mandarin, however, stood his ground in a bizarre fusion of stern and subtly sadistic thrill._**

 ** _"Well, yes and no." he strangely replied, "I toy with your emotions this way in order to unleash your full potential." he explained while looking her dead in the eye as he stepped closer to her_**

 _ **Nova widened her eyes and tilted her head in uncertainty, "Potential?" she asked with a much calmer voice**_

 _ **"Yes," he replied as he turned her around to face the punching bag she'd just deface, "Look at those burn marks." he said with a somewhat seductive tone, "Two simmering scars that size, that deep. All of that power generating from simple teasing. Imagine what you'd be able to do unleash with all the anger you could create."**_

 _ **Otto sat up in disbelief, after all that training she's done with the black and blue simians and Mandarin was trying to dismantle all of it? What new side to his leader is being revealed from the shadows**_

 _ **That**_ ** _explanation shocked and nearly frightened the female hothead as she stepped away from Mandarin and stared at him in shock, "A-are you say I should use my temper as a weapon?" she questioned in concern_**

 ** _"Of course you should."_** **In the background, the blue eyed teen shuddered at the idea of** ** _Nova_** **being angry on a regular basis. It that happened, she'd turn the Super Robot inside out**

 **"** ** _We'd be fools to waste such incredible power._** **"** ** _he added in trying to explain his point_**

 ** _Nova glanced down at er hands, imagining the unrepairable damage she could cause to innocent people, as well as her friends, if she let her anger dictate her fighting "but I can't control when it happens, I hurt someone or myself. There's no way I'm risking anyone's life like that."_**

 **"Damn right she won't." Chiro said to himself**

 ** _Mandarin released one last smug grin "I admire your concern, my dear, but bare in mind that we are guardians of the entire universe." he debated "our lives are dedicated to taking risks." Nova crossed her arms in discomfort and glanced down at the floor. To some extent, her leader's logic was sound "Who in the stars would dare threaten so much as Shuggazoom's orbit once they know about the power you could unleash upon them?" he questioned with a sinister tone as he got close to her face._**

 ** _"I sure wouldn't." Otto thought to himself_**

 ** _However, she pushed the black eyed primate off of her and quietly exclaimed "I'm not gonna protect Shuggazoom using fear, Mandarin. I don't need it as a crutch." she whispered sternly in his face._**

 ** _"Hm, keep teaching yourself that." with that, the orange simian walked out of the training room as mysteriously as he entered._** **Followed by Chiro giving the team's past leader an Akanbe on his way out.**

 ** _Just as the yellow simian stood there in pause wondering what just happened, she heard a sound of footsteps and a thump from behind. She was startled and turned around to see an anxious green primate staring at her with worried and confused eyes._**

 ** _Nova dropped her jaw realizing Otto had been in the air ducts the entire time. "Huh, you were right. I did forget you were there." she lightly had to chuckle at her simple mistake_**

 ** _"I always keep my promises, don't I?" he rhetorically asked_**

 ** _"Yeah." she lightly smiled, but frowned again, "So I'm assuming you heard all of that?" she said turning around to the door_**

 ** _"Yes. Nova, about what he said to you-"_**

 ** _The yellow cyborg interrupted him, assuming she knew what he was going to say "Don't worry about it." she said crossing her arms into her chest "He'll have to try better than that to get to me. It was all just mumbo jumbo anyway." she explained in a desperate attempt to deny how uncomfortable Mandarin made her._**

 ** _"No, it's not that." the mechanic corrected her in distraught "Yesterday, he came into my room, and was telling me something exactly like that."_**

 **"And probably to the others at this rate." Chiro said out loud, still wishing somebody could hear him**

 ** _The bubblegum eyed cyborg gasped and whipped her head up towards him in surprise, "What?" she was very upset at the idea that Mandarin would do what he just did to someone as loving as sweet little Otto_**

 ** _"Yeah, something about how Shuggazoom would be so much worse without me." he explained with a hand behind his head. Then, he finally worked up the courage to ask the question a certain leader placed in his mind "Say Nova, you don't think I'm just a servant, do you?" he rolled his eyes down towards the floor in shame._**

 ** _Nova's eyes popped out of her head that her friend would ask such a self-loathing question, "Servant?! Otto, you're are teammate and friend, why would you think-" she frozen with a unpleasant thought before speaking again. Except now her expression was a bit monotone yet frustrated "What else he did tell you?" she began to interrogate him, but he completely cooperated_**

 ** _"Between that and something about my ' untapped potential', that's about it, but when I left the room, I overheard him say something to himself. 'Hopefully, the others won't be as hard to persuade'" he quoted the events from yesterday._**

 ** _Nova stared for a moment pondering over what she was just told " Persuade?"_**

 ** _I know, he doesn't even know I heard him. Based on all that anger and servant stuff, what could he be trying to persuade us to do?" the green simian, hoping in vain that Nova could explain at least some of what's going on._**

 ** _"I have no idea, but if he talked to you when you were alone, and then me..." her voice trailed off in realization_**

 ** _"He's probably gonna do the same thing to the others!" gasped Otto_**

 **"If he hasn't already." added Chiro**

 **"** ** _Oh, we've gotta talk to guys about this, now." Nova exclaimed pulling the young cyborg out of the room by his arm,_**

 ** _"You mean with Mandarin?"_**

 ** _"No!"_**

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**


	9. Taking Actions

**(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 _ **As the dream continued on, Nova and Otto split apart and**_ ** _stealthily gathered Gibson, Sparx and Antauri for a private meeting in Otto's bedroom. After a few minutes of questioning from the three simians, Nova and Otto began explaining their concerns about their leader's recent behavior. During that conversation, the remaining three primates were growing more concerned and perplexed. All of them, including Chiro, sat in silence during the story while taking several mental notes they were prepared to asked when the story was over._**

 ** _"and then he just left the room out of nowhere, expecting me to think about what he said. I wasn't too worried until Otto said Mandarin told him all the same things." she finished their story as she gestured a hand towards the green monkey sitting besides her. Once the explanation was_ _concluded, Sparx, Antauri, and Gibson turned to each other with unsettled expressions, as the red simian was the first of the three to respond_**

 ** _"See?" he rhetorically asked standing up "I told you guys he's been up to something ever since that day in the training room." he exclaimed in_** ** _frustration. All Antauri could do as of now was stare at the green and yellow primates, waiting for more angles to tackle this situation. Being second in command, he would most likely be the one his fellow comrades would rely on him to guide them through the tension_**

 ** _While holding a palm to his chin, Gibson began to ask his own_** ** _clarifying_** _ **queries "Pardon my uncertainty, Nova, but I'm not quite following what you two are getting at." he said with genuine curiosity**_

 _ **Nova turned her head to Otto in thought, and faced the other three teammates again to rephrase their case "Then let me ask you this; has Mandarin gotten any of you alone and said anything... weird?" she asked**_

 **"Did he yet and we didn't see it it?" Chiro asked himself in the background**

 _ **The remaining three monkeys thought about this a moment, but they all replied simply**_

 _ **Antauri- "No." he remained paused**_

 _ **Gibson- "Not recently" he shook his head**_

 _ **Sparx- "Define 'weird'" he requested by crossing his arms, in need of some clarification to her wording**_

 _ **Finally, it was the mechanic's turn to speak as he started to describe the 'weird' feeling his own authority figure was burdening him with. "Umm..." he snapped his fingers, quickly trying to think of the right words to describe his thoughts "Was he telling you something like how especially powerful and important you are to the team."**_

 _ **"Trying to boost your ego in a creepy, condescending sort of way." the gum eyed female added on**_

 _ **Once again, the** **unanimous response was no. The blue simian continued the questioning, "Now, I trust the judgement of both of you as well as my own, but you're positive he wasn't merely complimenting you on your achievements?" the British**_ ** _scientist worded his next few sentences very carefully as to not offend either of his friends_**

 ** _"Not like this." insisted Otto, of all monkeys "He's never spoken to us like this before. I know him better than this." he curled his knees up to his chest_**

 ** _"Do you?" the yellow warrior growled, displaying some built up tension. She then turned to face the black the blue simians with body tone that screamed 'wait till you hear this' "Did I forget to mention that he only apologized about the training room thing because these two called him out on it?" she angrily grinned as she quickly pointed one finger to Sparx and Otto. This caused Antauri to widen his eyes at this and Gibson to slightly drop his jaw at that statement. By putting those pieces together, they now realized that Mandarin was staging the apology just to look good in front of them._**

 ** _"What?" gasped Antauri in_** ** _disbelief_**

 ** _"Yep," Sparx said_** _ **vouch**_ ** _ing Nova's story, "and I'll bet he waited until you guys were in plain sight to do it."_**

 ** _Gibson suddenly realized something as turned to his his second in command, "Reflecting on the apology, he didn't try to get Nova to apologize to her. Almost like he wouldn't have done it without an audience." he deduced_**

 ** _This was the point the black primate was_** ** _concerned, as well as suspicious "Mandarin has always been unusually cunning and gifted in his vocabulary, but to outright manipulate us? I never would've expected that from him." proclaimed Antauri with a quiet, surprised tone of voice_**

 ** _"I did." Sparx bluntly added, earning him a somewhat annoyed glare from everyone else. After that awkward moment of scolding silence, the green cyborg had another point to bring up_**

 ** _"Actually, guys..." he proclaimed meekly, drawing attention to himself, "after what Sparx said when Mandarin left the room, I did notice him acting pretty weird. He's definitely **up to something, and it scares me that I don't feel comfortable talking to him about it.** " The room was suddenly locked in silence for a moment to absorb the green simian's last few words. For Otto, of all monkeys, to confess such deep and conflicted emotions, the Hyperforce knew that this situation _****_could not be ignored._**

 ** _In sympathy, Nova pulled her chair closer to Otto's and placed a caring arm over his tense shoulders. "Well, we're right here if you need to talk." Otto looked up at his female comrade to see her smile gingerly at him, "None of us are going to let anyone make you feel uncomfortable about your own feelings, especially one of our own." she soothed with a voice of confidence_**

 **"Hell, yeah" Chiro chanted with a fist in the air**

 ** _Antauri nodded in agreement "We certainly won't."_**

 ** _"Not on our lives." Gibson_** ** _added sternly_**

 ** _Then, Sparx began to explain something to give Otto a relaxing thought "Alright, buddy, tell you what; Gibson, Antauri, and I will just watch our backs, and if Mandarin gets us alone-"_**

 ** _"No." Otto interrupted the red pilot with a stern tone of voice "I need to know for myself if I'm overreacting or not." he stated sticking his head under the table, and placing a small sack on the table. "So I need you guys to hear me out."_**

 ** _This left the blue simian perplexed, "What's in the bag?" he asked with a raised eyebrow_**

 ** _As he reached into the bag, Otto pulled out three little chips and handed them to the oblivious three primates "I don't want to eavesdrop on anyone, but if Mandarin does try to talk you, I need to compare the conversation to mine and Nova's." he explained_**

 ** _"What are you talking about, Otto?" Antauri asked, curiously examining the mini metal chips in his hands_**

 ** _"Each of those chips have tiny little cameras in them." he replied as he pressed his thumb into the center of his palm, "Once they're activated, they'll be able to record everything around you and we can replay it from my computer." he clarified the black simian's question._**

 ** _The remaining four primates widened their eyes hearing Otto's plans, surprised at the lengths the young mechanic was suggesting they go._**

 **Chiro tilted his head this statement as he was curious about what was going to happen next**

 _ **Concerned about how far the green simian was proclaiming they take their**_ ** _suspicions, The pacifist cleared his throat and questioned Otto's plan "Otto, you and Nova have displayed solid evidence of your concern, but doesn't this course of action seem rather extreme to you?"_**

 ** _"I have to agree with Antauri." added Gibson as he scratched his head in confusion while staring at the chip in his hand "Yes, we don't have enough confirmation that we have a dilemma, let alone one drastic enough to take such an exaggerated approach."_**

 ** _Otto was at first discouraged by the team's uncertainty, but luckily, Nova stepped in and vouched for him "I've gotta side with Otto, guys. As weird as this seems, there's no way he's making this up."_**

 ** _"Besides, you guys don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm just looking for answers, and I need your help to do it. Please, just think about it." the green cyborg pleaded his case and persuaded his brothers to aid him in his investigation_**

 ** _After a moment of hesitation from the three of them, Sparx looked up from his palm and gave Nova and Otto a glare of_** ** _determination "I'm in." he nodded, placing the chip in his shoulder "We've got nothing to lose otherwise, right?" he winked to them, making the green simian sit up with excitement_**

 ** _Antauri quickly followed Sparx's lead and put on his camera chip as well. "I have complete faith in your judgment, my friend. If you're looking to ease your concern, I'll help in any possible." the black monkey added with a touching, fatherly voice._**

 ** _After some mental debate, Gibson finally followed suit as well. Growing rather suspicious of this situation himself. "I just hope you know what doing, Otto. So, I'll play along too." he agreed to partake in the team's secret mission._**

 **"Man, I'm wondering why I never heard about this before." the young leader thought to himself**

 ** _With a grin, Otto thanked the team for their_** ** _cooperation and the team left Otto's room to resume their casual activity and await for anything suspicious to occur. All the Hyperforce knew for now is that something was off about their mysterious and they were going to get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing they did_**

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

Okay, I'm gonna be quite busy for a while so I wanted to get something else quick but with some effort. So, to sum up this scene; Antauri, Gibson and Sparx are to use their secret little cameras to record the scenes where Mandarin tries to manipulate them. I'm doing this so Otto doesn't have to be in every scene. I wrote myself into with him because since Chiro is watching these events unfold from Otto's memories, it wouldn't make sense for him to see things that Otto himself didn't. Also, I'm aware of the unfortunate implications of eavesdropping. With the cameras, and the team agreeing to participate in the plan, Otto doesn't have to be in the scene but it'll still make sense that Chiro is able to see it. Hope this was good, please leave a review and have a Happy Easter/Passover


	10. Words Like Acid

**(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 ** _The dream had now transitioned into another time in the memory. This time, Chiro found himself in Gibson's_** ** _laboratory. The blue simian was just about to test his latest chemical concoction, when all of a sudden, there was a familiar knocking of the lab's door._**

 **"So what's he gonna say to Gibson?"** **Chiro pondered as he took another seat**

 **" _Gibson?_ " _the voice belong to the orange leader of the Hyperforce._**

 ** _Internally, the blue genius gasped, remembering the plan the five members agreed on if they should be faced alone with their suspicious leader. Before allowing Mandarin entrance, he quickly pressed into his palm and activated the tiny camera_** ** _device that was hidden on his chest. Once it was activated, he announced with a shaky voice, "C-come in." the only reason his voice was quivering is because he knew what the former leader was capable of. All he wanted from this plan is to not get caught. Just before Mandarin entered, Gibson attempted to act casual by returning to his experiment._**

 _ **"Gibson? It's Mandarin." the orange primate announced, walking into the lab.**_

 _ **"Oh, hello Mandarin." the British cyborg replied acting naturally as he mixed the last of his chemicals into one beaker, turning the mysterious white liquid to a dark grayish color."What can I do for you?" he asked as he filled a little turkey baster with the gray liquid**_

 _ **"Oh, nothing really. I was just hoping we could talk for a little bit." Mandarin answered with a strangely innocent voice**_

 _ **"In a moment please. I simply need to test this plant's reaction to my latest chemical creation, experiment 626 of my chemical concoctions" Gibson explained, standing next to a little green home plant standing tall and straight. While Mandarin patiently waited in the background, the blue simian ever so gently squeezed the turkey baster, releasing merely a single drop of this Chemical 626. Upon making contact with the plant, the stem sizzled into ashes and the top of the plant tipped out of the pot and fall over. Leaving what's left of the stem steaming and burned. Gibson widened his eyes, not expecting the gray substance to do such damage with a single drop. Not changing his frightened expression, the blue simian wrote his observations in his notebook, plugged the beaker closed, and walked it into his chemical cabinet. "I'll save you for when Sparx goes on another pranking spree.**_ _ **" he said darkly but humorously**_

 **Chiro's** **eyes nearly popped out of his head in fear of Gibson's quote unquote joke. Then he took a mental note to himself. "Stay on Gibson's good side."**

 ** _The orange simian seemed to be quite delighted by that last statement as he began to work his black, manipulative magic. "That was incredible, Gibson." he oddly complimented, sounding somewhat_** ** _condescending._**

 ** _The blue simian turned to face Mandarin with one eyebrow higher than the other. "What was incredible?"_**

 ** _"Oh, why that chemical you created. I knew you were intelligent, but we clearly haven't given you enough credit for your_** ** _abilities."_**

 ** _Gibson paused for a moment and chuckled modestly as he tried to deny his achievements "Oh, please Mandarin, thank you. However, this isn't anything out of the ordinary from my daily work. Not to mention my handfuls of failures as you've just witnessed " he explained gesturing towards the chemical 626_**

 ** _"Perhaps." the orange simian replied as he examined the_** ** _incinerated house plant "Whatever you're working on is apparently going to be_** _ **abundantly useful in combat.**_ ** _" he replied with a mysteriously slender tone of voice_**

 ** _Gibson was frightened and shocked by that previous statement. The image of his latest creation being used on another creature terrified him "Combat?!" he exclaimed rhetorically, facing his leader in disbelief " We can't use something this dangerous as a weapon, it's far too dangerous."_**

 ** _"What good is a weapon that isn't dangerous?" Mandarin countered with a serious expression_**

 **"I guess that's true," Chiro mumbled as he crossed his arms, not wanting to agree with the simian he knew as one of the team's most dangerous foes**

 ** _Gibson, at first, knew that the orange simian had a strong point, but he quickly responded "I- um... This is different! If there were to be an accident, it could cause unspeakable damage to innocent people. Or even worse, one of us." the_** ** _British primate protested his leader's insane idea. A shiver then coursed through his_** ** _circuits imagining that one of his comrades being harmed by one of his creations_**

 ** _Mandarin, however, stood firm. "Again, any useful weapon runs the risk of backfiring, doesn't it?" he rose an eyebrow to emphasize his point_**

 ** _Gibson lowered his eyes to the floor with internal debate "I... suppose that's common knowledge." he mumbled, not having an argument for that last statement_**

 ** _"And didn't I_ just _hear you say you'd use that acid on Sparx_ _next time he pranked you?_ " _he asked, turning the genius's own words against him_**

 ** _"Mandarin, I hope you're not implying anything me." the blue monkey pressured urgently "I was just being humorous, and you know I wouldn't dream of harming any member of my own team deliberately." he stepped up to Mandarin and went up to his face in frustration and self defense_**

 **"Atta boy, Gibson." Chiro mumbled to himself from the sidelines**

 ** _After a moment of silence, the devious simian remained_** ** _unphased by Gibson's emotions,_** ** _"Do I?" he asked bluntly, causing Gibson to nearly do a double take. Mandarin continued as he began to pace around Gibson with one arm behind his back. "Do you ever wonder why we make such dark humor behind each other's backs?" he asked, much to Gibson's confusion, and intimidation of what was coming next "Sometimes, there're these subliminal feelings a group has towards one another. Like... for example, unwanted nicknames and disrespect from fellow teammates." he was not so subtly referring to the red fist rocket pilot "and comments like your "humorous line" can be more serious than you realize." he stopped and stood behind the breathless blue primate_**

 **The black haired teen bit his lips and whispered in fear, "Come on, Gibson. You're better than this."**

 ** _The scientist blinked as he turned to his leader. From where Chiro was standing, Mandarin's mind games were taking a drastic toll over Gibson's psyche. With a lost and seemingly scared expression, all he could do was stutter out, "W-what would I have to gain from hurting anyone outside of self defense?"_**

 ** _With a subtle chuckle, the orange monkey placed a sharp, slow hand over Gibson's tense shoulder "You tell me. You're the genius of this team, and yet, you have such a... low position to dignify your talents." he said sinisterly "It makes me wonder if you ever wanted to do something to gain more that you deserved. Let's not elude ourselves; with your brilliance, Hal, the fate of the waking world could be in your hands depending on what you do in this lab. Never waste an opportunity to do what'll benefit yourself the most, Gibson. Remember that." ending on that mysterious and abrupt note, the manipulative primate walked out of the room similar to how he did with Nova._**

 ** _There was a paralyzing silence in Gibson's Laboratory. The images and implications of Mandarin's speech plunged him into an internal conflict. The blue simian walked backed to the open cabinet, and took the gray chemical beaker into his shaking hands. He began to think about the things Mandarin said and the ideas it planted in his mind; 'If I could create all those explosions by accidents, who knows what sort of damage I could cause if that was my objective.' thought to himself. He thought to himself in deep concentration. Mandarin was right; he wasn't the most respect member of the Hyperforce, he was the target of their jokes once in a while, and the most often_**

 ** _However, he realized something;_** ** _they all were at some point, it was natural for 'people' living together. In Gibson's eyes, his bond with the Hyperforce was fused together as strong as two molecules holding any living creature together, great or small. He'd fight to the death to protect Sparx, Otto, and the rest of the universe, it was his duty and that was all he needed his talents for._**

 ** _With that realization, he tightly squeezed the beaker between his fingers in anger and quickly turned his head towards his chemical sink, where he disposed of unneeded, unstable liquids. With full force fueled by fury, he rammed his arm into the metal sink, shattering the beaker and spilling his only sample of the Chemical 626. "How's that for a benefit?" he growled under his breath, referring to the fact that destroying 626 was the best move he could've made right now. Gibson wouldn't give Mandarin the satisfaction of manipulating him. No one was gonna make a insane mad scientist out of him. And nobody was going to hurt this Monkey Team if he had anything to say about it. Including Mandarin._**

 **Chiro flinched in shock as Gibson's burst of anger came out of nowhere, seemingly. It was very uncomfortable, but at the same time, the current Hyperforce leader could tell deep down that this meant Mandarin's plans weren't working. But the way he had to witness his family, his comrades be mentally dissected and toyed with in their past, and having no possible way to fix what happened so long ago, was becoming far too much to bear. Yet, there's still so much more to come from this nightmare that he hasn't a choice but to carry on with Otto's showing of the Hyperforce's dark past.**

 ** _(TO BE CONTINUED)_**


	11. For Otto and Chiro

_**Finally we get to see the real, present time with the monkeys. I should've gotten to this point. I'm sorry things have been so slow lately, I just wanted to finish this chapter,. Don't hate it please**_

 **(REALITY)**

For the past hour and a half, the three simians continued to share stories and make each other laugh. Despite the humor of their tales, they were still soft reminders of the friend that betrayed them. Now that they had given themselves a break from the harsh feelings, they realized that there's still the issue of their two youngest teammates, an angry leader and a sickly goofball. This current time of getting along doesn't excuse their behavior or the fact that the Silver primate would return to find two important team members missing. Before anyone could think of a way to explain what happened, there was a voice that announced itself into the room.

"Monkey Team? I've returned!" the voice announcing its entrance belonged to none other than the monkey in question, Antauri.

"Antauri!" the three primates exclaimed as Gibson, Nova, and Sparx rose from their seats and rushed over to greet him. Right as the yellow female gave him a quick hug, the blue monkey asked him with minor concern, "How did your mission go, my friend? Do you have the Beacons?" he felt the need to ask because he didn't spot anything being held in his gray, metal hands. Although, he was hugging the yellow primate with one arm, while his other hand was in plain sight and clearly empty. Without those flowers, the green monkey would only get worse, his illness would only get worse and might lead to some permeant scars on his health.

"He he he, I found everything you asked of me, Gibson." he replied as he released himself from Nova's embrace to reveal a small dark green sack he was holding to his chest. "Rudolph's Blizzard Beacons, just as you requested." he walked over to a grinning blue scientist, who happily praised him for the success of his mission.

"Oh, these are perfect." Gibson exclaimed, peeking into the sack, "This'll be more than enough to guarantee Otto a full recovery." he looked up, being met by everyone smiling at that relieving information "They just need a few minutes to defrost and I can start creating the medicine." he explained, shaking the bag in his hands

"So Antauri, anything crazy happen on your little quest?" asked Sparx in a voice that was waiting to tell a smart-ass joke "Considering our luck, you probably had an army of rabid snow monsters chasing you or something, right?" he asked crossing his arms, expecting a very predictable reaction

The blue eyed robot rolled his eyes up in thought and calmly responded "Actually... nothing at all." he said sounding just as surprised as the expression everyone gave him. At this point in their lives, the Hyperforce couldn't even go to a truck stop without something bizarre happening to them. The concept of any minor task running smoothly was a legendary occurrence for them. "Aside from the blinding snow and some digging, I made swift work retrieving the Beacons." he explained calmly as he began to look around the room for his young pupil, not that anybody noticed at first.

In an attempt to quickly detract from the question the three were dreading to be asked, Nova clapped her metal hands together and said with a quick and exaggerated expression, "So, Gibson, why don't we put those plants under a lamp and start making Otto's medicine?" she grinned and gestured the blue simian forward towards the med bay

"Oh, um, yes!" he replied as he played along with a paranoid expression, thankfully, Antauri wasn't facing him

"Good idea, let's do that!" add Sparx as he marched forward nervously, unintentionally milking the situation as the three simians took merely a few steps forward, hoping to reach the lab before the question could be asked.

Antauri, however, was so lost in thought he didn't notice their strange behavior. Refocusing his wandering eyes, he popped the taboo question of the day out into the open, "Where's Chiro?" he asked naïvely. Between the serenity of his solo mission and his warm greetings back, the robot pacifist didn't put together that something went wrong while he was gone.

 **Busted.** The questioned monkeys stopped in their tracks as if they were paralyzed in place. The blue scientist gulped with guilt as Sparx and Nova turned to each other in fear. The red, blue and yellow cyborgs turned back around with defeated expression painted with the bleak shade of remorse, much to Antauri's confusion

"Ah ha ha ha ha," the red monkey laughed sheepishly, trying to lighten the mood "Uh, funny story about that, pal..." he added as he stressfully rubbed the back of his head in discomfort. The wise primate widened his blue eyes and sighed as he put two and two together. He realized that the arguing carried on, even without him. Considering the question that triggered this tension, it was clear that it must've been a serious fight.

"How bad was it?" Antauri asked as he slid a hand down his face, dreading the explanation to his question.

Nova squinted her eyes shut as she began to face the music, "He got so angry at us, he took Otto up to his room to give him some quiet time." she clearfully spoke in a shameful expression

"And has ordered absolute solitude for the both of them until the medicine is ready." added Gibson, sounding just as guilty as Nova, and not bearing to look his second in command in the face.

The silver monkey sighed with disappointment, not just at his teammates, but for himself as well. He wasn't sure what exactly what went on while he was out, but he knew what had to be done right now. "... We need to talk, as Gibson prepares Otto's medicine. Now." he ordered peacefully as he gestured the three guilt written simians silently into the med-bay. A shiver ran down their spines in embarrassment about the lecture they were all internally preparing themselves for. Once they entered the lab, Antauri, Sparx, and Nova sat in a circle of chairs, while the blue simian walked around the room, gathering the supplies he needed for the ill cyborg's medicine.

The silver robot cleared his throat, barely knowing where to begin. Unbeknownst to the remaining monkeys, he was feeling just as uncomfortable as everyone else. "Before we begin," he sighed "Let me clarify that I'm not going to scold any of you for the arguing lately." he calmly explained, much to the surprise of the three monkeys.

Gibson quickly turned up from his chemical cabinets, while Sparx and Nova shot their heads out of their laps, almost not believing what they were hearing. "Wait, are you serious?" asked the yellow female, who couldn't grasp onto the idea of getting off the hook so easily for such immature behavior, especially for the tension it caused on Otto's health and Chiro's trust in them

Antauri than elaborated on his reasoning "I have no right to chastise you for your actions when I have been no better all week." he replied, staring into their eyes with an equally remorseful expression as the others displayed before, but more subtle considering the monkey in question, "If I didn't leave, I might've ended up fighting with the rest of you. I deeply apologize for failing you, Monkey Team. My behavior this week was beyond deplorable." he begged for forgiveness among his brothers.

"We're sorry as well, my friend." replied Gibson as he paused his work to speak to everyone face to face. "After Chiro took Otto upstairs, we decided to sit down and do what we should've been doing all week; talking our thoughts out with each other." he added as he gestured across the room, while Sparx nodded quietly to vouch for Gibson

"I see." the silver primate smiled, "I'm impressed you three were able to come to that conclusion together." he praised them for the little moment of maturity they were able to create despite the agitation this past seven days.

"Don't be." the red pilot denied his compliment, followed by Nova shaking her head implying "no" to agree with Sparx "It shouldn't have taken Chiro shouting at us like little kids to notice how out of control we've been." he brought the guilty party back into fruition, reminding Antauri that their "realization" was too little too late.

The blue eyed robot looked to the floor again before responding. There was a certain thought he had to himself during his mission that helped him see the error of his ways like the others did while he was absent "...Team, tell me if you came to a similar reasoning; While I was alone searching for the herbs, I thought about a potential source to all of our anger. When I thought back to my own outrage, I came to the conclusion that-"

"You didn't want to think about Mandarin?" the red cyborg asked, predicting where his second-in-command was going with his question

"Yes," the silver pacifist nodded with sorrow, "Chiro kept asking me about it, but I neglected to answer him." he said with guilt as Gibson began creating the cure for Otto's illness

"and he even put together that Otto got sick because he was bottling up all his emotions to himself. J-just differently from how we've been doing it." Nova stuttered with a cracked voice, crossing her arms and staring at the floor. She still wanted to throw up, knowing that their sweet, loving, helpful little green comrade was sickening himself because he was scared of provoking more anger. The yellow simian valued Otto's trust, and was afraid that that trust of an older sister like bond has been tainted beyond repair.

"I know," added Antauri, folding his legs into a lotus position, "I was afraid to tell Chiro about this because I thought if he knew the origin of our anger, he'd be crushed." he explained with a sense of dread upon that confession

Nova inhaled through her nose and bit her left thumb. After pondering that last statement, the yellow warrior brought herself to describe her own feeling "I..I didn't think about it that way specifically," she whispered, shuttering the thought Antauri's story gave her

"I didn't say anything because I thought I could handle the feelings myself. We were upset about it, and I thought it'd be better to sweep it under the rug and just...I don't know, move on or whatever." explained the red simian, leaning on the edge of his chair

"Uh-huh." Nova nodded intensely, "That's exactly what I was thinking." she muttered, pointing to Sparx to emphasize her point.

"As was I" replied the blue scientist from his desk

"Yeah, and on top of that, what's the Kid supposed to do about it? " he rhetorically asked as he stood up from his seat and started pacing the floor, "He's gonna want to help us if we tell him what's bothering us."

"You read my mind, Sparx." chimed in Gibson as he crushed the Blizzard Beacons into a batch of powder. "All of this was years ago, Chiro's our leader now, and overall, he's been better for our morale." he added with a concentrated tone while he mixed his chemicals into the powder.

"He doesn't know Mandarin the way we did, how can we expect him to understand how we're feeling after all this time? Everything we've been through?" Sparx asked leaning against the wall

"You're right, Sparx. Chiro may never understand, but as a member of this team and our family, he deserves our effort to help him comprehend our feelings." the silver robot stood up and stepped into the middle of their circle, "I never wish to take my emotions out in such a manner ever again. Please, my friends, forgive me." he humbly bowed in front of the three cyborg simians, begging for forgiveness.

Nova couldn't conceal her feelings anymore and leaped into a hug, ambushing the ashamed pacifist by capturing him in her arms "Only if you'll forgive us." she exclaimed with a shaky tone as Antauri somberly embraced her right back.

"So we're all agreed," announced Gibson as he turned around to face everyone else. He spoke with reassured confidence in his voice, something that the depressed cyborgs have been missing all day "As of now, may we never suppress what's bothering us again, and by the Power Primate, may we never allow any of us to suffer alone again." he held one hand out in front of everyone, indicting the seriousness of his speech, "For Otto and Chiro."

With expressions of determination, the rest of the team chimed in and stacked their hands on top of each other and repeated "For Otto and Chiro!"

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

 **I'm sorry, this is a really bad chapter, I'm not proud of it. Just please be very honest in your reviews and tell me it's not horrible. One more thing I want to bring up; I know I've been doing a lot of telling, not showing with the whole fighting all week stuff, but I have a reason for that. The story needs there to be anger amongst the group, but it still need to keep the reader invested. Take the Loud House episode _Brawl in the Family,_ that was literally nothing but 11 minutes petty tension and obnoxious fighting. and if you don't know, pretty much EVERY SINGLE Loud House fans hates that episode. I don't want to give you guys a Monkey Team version of ****_Brawl in the Family, s_** **o I thought it would be best to keep the** **fighting very brief and only show it when it's necessary. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please fav and review if you had fun with this chapter. See you next time.**

 _ **I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!**_


	12. Tea for Two

Hope this was worth it, read review and enjoy

 ** _(OTTO'S DREAM)_**

 ** _The black monkey was sitting alone in the serenity of his bedroom. He appeared to be meditating, since he was levitating in lotus form and was keeping his eyes closed. That, however, wasn't the case. Antauri was sitting in the middle of a circle, surrounding himself with three thin, green poles which each had a teapot on top of them. One teapot was beige, one was red, and the last one was teal with a white sukura blossom pattern. Chiro also took note that the past version of his father figure was positioning his small, metal hands into his chest as if he were holding a volleyball. That's when it hit the young Chosen One; Antauri was using his telekinesis to balance the teapots on the poles. His light breathing was the only sound to be heard within the scene, and aside from a few signs of struggling to balance the three teapots, the wise cyborg felt great peace in his concentration. Fate, however, had other plans; out of nowhere, there was a familiar knocking on his dark gray door. Unlike Gibson, the black pacifist memorized the individual sounds his teammates made when knocking on a door._**

 **"Great," muttered Chiro as he sat in lotus position at a small distance, "What could he possibly say to intimidate Antauri?" he wondered aloud.**

 ** _'Mandarin' he thought to himself, reminding himself of his secret assignment. After gently placing the poles and pots down, Antauri stared down into palm, debating whether or not he should follow through with this plan. Mandarin was the leader of this team, who he held an abundance of respect for, he was entitled to having a conversation in private. On the other hand, pardon the pun, the green mechanic was also his teammate, and everyone gave their vow that they would follow through with the plan to ease his troubled mind. With a glare of determination, Antauri pressed into his palm, thus activating the hidden camera._**

 ** _"Come in, Mandarin." he announced, clearing his throat. With that, the orange simian walked into the room with a more relaxed expression than when he spoke to everyone else. He had to in order to unleash his plan on someone as enlightened as his second-in-command. "Sorry for the wait," Antauri bowed in apology, "I was deep in meditation."_**

 ** _"Think nothing of it. I'm sorry for interrupting your meditation." he replied sitting in lotus position across from Antauri. Once he sat down, he looked around the floor with a phony perplexed expression, but it wasn't phony enough for the black simian to catch it, "Is that... all you were doing in here?" he asked, sending eye signals towards the poles and teapots_**

 ** _Internally, Antauri squinted to himself, this questioning must be the beginning of the strange behavior Nova and Otto had warned them about. However, he didn't display any of those suspicions and carried on with the conversation as if nothing was going on, "Oh, well I decided to practice stabilizing my metal powers to gain better control of them." he explained, gesturing towards the different colored china teapots._**

 ** _"By... balancing teapots?" the orange primate tilted his head in confusion, clearly not understanding the black monkey's private training method_**

 ** _"Um, yes," Antauri rubbed the back of his head, feeling awkward by Mandarin's confusion, if someone as intelligent as him was off-put by this, it was probably a little embarrassing._ Chiro could feel the tension from where he was sitting and rubbed one in exhaustion, getting slightly bored from all this information he had to take in.**

 ** _"This exercise was something harmless I could concentrate on and delicately use my telekinesis, as well as find a comfort zone for my hands." he replied, tending his hands together. When he's focusing his mind on levitating something, Antauri couldn't help but feel slight discomfort in his hands, which is why he's working on practicing to advance his telekinetic abilities._**

 ** _In apparent disappointment, Mandarin shook his head and added with a condescending tone, "Sounds like a waste of power if you ask me." he said looking Antauri in the eyes and adding a little smirk_**

 ** _"How so?" asked the second in command, feeling a bit taken back by that comment about his personal decisions_**

 ** _"Come on, my friend, you've had enough battle experience to know you won't always have those peaceful, zen centers that you're famous for when we're defending Shuggazoom from monsters and invaders." he debated his case and explained his confusion to Antauri_**

 ** _This was a point that the yellow eyed monkey couldn't deny, "Very true," he nodded in comprehension "but I'm not going to fight on pure impulse, I need to stay prepared for combat with a plan and prevent any chances of an ambush."_**

 ** _Playfully, the leader placed one pondering hand under his elbow and another under his chin, "Hmmm, that's another good point. So let's meet somewhere in the middle." he said lowly, much to Antauri's perplexity_**

 ** _Raising a single eyebrow, the black simian had to ask, "What do you-" just as he reacted to that last statement, Mandarin dashed up from his seat, nearly at the speed of sound, and picked up the beige colored teapot. Then, he suddenly vanished._**

 ** _"Hey!" the black primate exclaimed in surprise by the wind Mandarin left in his tracks. In a haste, he turned around to search for his leader, and then looked to his left to see the orange monkey standing ten feet away from him, wearing a devilish grin across his face as he held the beige teapot in one arm. Just as the black monkey spotted him, Mandarin hurled the teapot at the startled simian as hard as he could._** _ **With a gasp, Antauri closed his eyes and blocked his face while using his telekinesis to stop the teapot's impact midair. "Mandarin!" Antauri shouted as he looked to see where the orange monkey had gone now. When he caught his leader standing behind him, he tried to**_ ** _interrogate his leader's bizarre actions_**

 _ **"Mandarin, what are you-" his question was cut short as the oldest primate threw the red teapot towards Antauri with even more force. The black cyborg flinched his eyes closed, blocking the second teapot from crashing into his head.**_

 **"Holy Crap!" exclaimed Chiro as he tried in vain to keep an eye on that snake of a simian attacking his father figure**

 _ **Now the wise simian was holding two of the teapots midair at the same time. Which, under pressure, was not a skill he'd practiced enough. However, due to Mandarin's blitz attack, he wasn't able to focus on putting the other teapots down. Once his eyes opened again, he found that Mandarin had once again moved, along with the final teapot. Unaware of his leader's current position, the panicked primate yelled in frustration "Would you care to explain what-" this time, his sentence was cut off by a loud whistle coming from behind him. In a heartbeat, he shot half his body around to see the wild monkey holding the last teapot; a beautiful bright teal teapot made from a particularly delicate glass. Without warning, he** **propelled the final teapot towards Antauri, harder and faster than any of the other teapots. As a last resort to remain unharmed, the normally calm, rational simian practically held his breath in panic and used his phasing abilities to prevent the teapot from hurting him. Because the black cyborg phased through it, the sukura patterned china kept flying straight and shattered against the wall. The impact left hundreds of glass shards across the floor, but thankfully nobody was hurt.**_

 _ **Upon hearing the crash, the cyborg pacifist opened his eyes,**_ ** _realizing it was safe to make his body solid again. Placing the remaining two teapots down, he took a moment to absorb everything that just happened. For one moment, he panted with widened yellow eyes, imagining an alternate future where that teapot smashed into the organic parts of his body. Then, with a more narrowed expression, he continued panting and turned to face the leader who so rudely attacked him. After taking his moment of_** ** _silence, Antauri finally mustered up the ability to speak after such a shocking ambush, but even than, Mandarin was too quick for him._**

 ** _"Ha ha, brilliant maneuvering Antauri!" he exclaimed with a shit eating grin on his face as he clapped with an exaggeratedly loud tone. "I can't believe you were able to dodge such a swift blitz attack!"_**

 **"I had no idea this creep's been this crazy for so long," the blue eyed telepathic thought to himself as he tried to piece together Mandarin's mindset before it was elaborated between the two monkeys. The last few "conversations" with everyone so far have just been that; condescending, manipulative, gas lighting, word twisting mind games, but nothing physical. Even if the former leader wanted to use something as drastic as a blitz attack, why would he choose to do it on the wisest Monkey under his command?**

 _ **Now the black simian's jaw was hanging halfway down , and he stared at his leader not so much with a look of anger, but a face indicating he was gazing into the black and red eyes of a pure lunatic, "What in the Cosmos is wrong with you?!" he screamed in frustration, mainly over not comprehending what was going on**_

 _ **"Hm hm hm..." Mandarin chuckled subtly "Nothing at all. I just wanted to keep you prepared for the unexpected." he replied, shrugging one shoulder up smugly**_

 _ **"So I've noticed." the pacifist spoke in a voice more** **reminiscent** **of Sparx's tone of voice then his own as he crossed his arms "but why take such reckless extremes for a lesson? You could've severally harmed me."**_

 _ **"Because I knew you were the only member of this team that could handle such an attack." he replied, approaching the black simian and sitting next to him with his familiar grin, indicating that everything was going according to his secret plans. However, as Mandarin sat next to him, the black cyborg watched him with weary eyes and becoming very high on guard, preparing himself for another "unexpected lesson" should it rear its ugly, glass bashing head.**_

 _ **"Mandarin, I hope you're not speaking ill of our friends." Antauri said, sitting in an awkward position, "I may have an advantage with my mental powers, but it's merely a contribution to our skills."**_

 _ **"Well of course not, but let's not kid ourselves, Antauri; you're the Hyperforce's second-in-command for a reason" he said, shrugging his shoulders, "Just look at how promptly you were able to react towards my ambush." he praised Antauri's skills as he pointed at the red and beige teapots**_

 **'Man, I can't tell if he's belittling them or trying to kill them.' Chiro thought to himself as he tilted his head and rubbed one eye open, watching this scene play out**

 _ **The yellow eyed cyborg shook his head in modesty "No, I was only acting out of instinct, and my instinct was to do as little damage as possible." he explained as he gestured his eyes to imply that he was referring to the shattered teal teapot behind him.**_

 _ **For some peculiar reason, the orange simian lightly chuckled under his breath "and that right there is just another layer of your personality that fascinates me, Antauri, how do you do it?" he asked, placing a palm under his chin in curiosity, as part of his manipulative act**_

 _ **"Do what?" Chiro and the illusion Antauri asked at the same time.**_ **Due to circumstances, however, the former was the only one aware of this strange** **coincidence and couldn't help but be taken back by it**

 _ **"Putting up this act of modesty so often. I can't imagine someone having your grace and intelligence being this humble, even in the privacy of his own room." he explained with a cunning tone of voice**_

 _ **The black simian stared into his lap, lost in thought before speaking again, "Well.. I don't think of myself as any less equal than the rest of the team."**_

 _ **"Uh," Mandarin exaggeratedly shook his head in annoyance "If you want to boast about your achievements, I insist. It's just the two of us in here."**_

 _ **There was a part of Antauri that was tempted to cave in to Mandarin's**_ ** _offer, but the second in command had his integrity to maintain. On top of that, he remembered that this was a similar trick to his friends, "I haven't earned anything that our comrades didn't as well." he replied firmly with narrow eyes_**

 ** _"Well, let's start with this; you're a very humorous cyborg." the black eyed monkey laughed as he placed a devious metal hand upon Antauri's tense shoulder. He continued speaking as he listed Antauri's personality traits off on his fingers "You're intelligent, controlled, powerful, you have the strongest connection to the Power Primate, and I'd hate to admit this but you are hands down the most respected member of this team." internally, the pacifist gasped at that final sentence, Mandarin? Displaying humility? That was certainly when the wise cyborg began to lose track of what was going on right now. All this condescending manipulation was derailing his usually peaceful and alert thought process. As the strange leader continued this conversation, that very alert thought process was taking a detour into dubiety "It's shocking to me how patient you can be under someone else's authority." he declared as he stood up from his seat, and placed his hands behind his back. Making his way towards the door, he stopped and uttered one final statement with a cunning, bone chilling, but confusing exit line "When you have everything you need to take command whenever you desire it." with a final devilish grin, the mysterious cyborg left him with the food for thought that left an unflattering, nearly toxic after taste_**

 ** _Once again, Antauri was alone in his room, not having a clue what he should do with anything Mandarin discussed with him. Now it was clear as day what Nova and Otto were warning him and the two Fist Rocket pilots about. That experience wasn't just startling and confusing, it was flat out incommodious. The black cyborg ran a hand over his face as he envisioned all the unpleasant imagery Mandarin gave him. Was he above his fellow Monkeys? Were they intimidated by him? Did he do anything to intimidate them? Antauri's greatest fear was obtaining so much power that he'd lose control and harmed the innocent, or worse, someone close to him. It's clear that Mandarin deliberately tried to tap into that fear and puncture Antauri's weak point with it._** ** _Whether the pacifist would rather have words_** ** _puncture his soul or a teapot's shards_** ** _puncture his face was up for debate. There was only one thing Antauri could do right now; be strong for the rest of the team and protect them from Mandarin's silver tongue. As of now, the Foot Crusher pilots were proven valid in their claims; Mandarin was playing some sort of intricate game with everyone's minds that was possibly leading to something dangerous for the morale of the Hyperforce. Yes, the wise primate was borderline frightened by the image Mandarin painted of him, but he could handle such turmoil through meditation and sound reasoning. Based on what he's heard, however, not everyone would be able to cope with the emotional ramifications of their leader's cruel, one sided game._**

 ** _That's what Antauri's there for, he remembered; not to be a stone, but to provide comfort when it was needed. Of course, he had so much more responsibilities in his every day life, but with his leader's current behavior, the loving condolences and defending of his friends was top priority, no matter who the culprit was. With that realization, the cyborg pacifist ripped his little spy camera out from its hiding place and pinched it between his thumb and pointer finger. With a_** ** _fierce determination radiating from his dark yellow eyes, he spoke into the camera with pure dedication in his deep, usually fatherly voice "Otto, Nova, I'm sorry I ever doubted your judgment, even for a second. I don't know what Mandarin is up to, but I wouldn't dream of letting him evade consequences for treating any of us like this. We will discover what he's planning and we'll do it together." he quietly exclaimed, speaking to his team who'd eventually see this recording. Then for a second, he turned around at the wall, trying to think of one last thing he had to say. Then he muttered that final thought into the camera, "Besides, that was my favorite teapot."_**

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Just letting you know in advance, this was Antauri's chapter where Mandarin tries to manipulate him, clearly. However, due to a lack of ideas, I'm going to skip over Sparx's scene of manipulation to move the story along a bit quicker (please DO NOT comment about that and please focus on what I can give you.) I don't want to skip it, but as you can see from this 2,962 word chapter, these can be incredibly draining. Please review on what I have and any criticisms are accepted if you see fit.


	13. The Jig is Up

(REALITY)

After their much needed apologies were exchanged, Sparx, Nova, Antauri and Gibson were sitting in the laboratory while the blue primate was creating a cure for the green one's illness. Once he poured the crushed herbs into the beaker, the liquid inside turned from a clear watery color to a dark green and red bloodstone pattern. Then, the blue genius placed the beaker over a Bunsen burner and activated it, allowing the chemicals to boil and melt together once they were completed. Now that he could take his eye off his chemicals for a little bit, Gibson turned to face his comrades and ask his blue eyed friends a question that's been lingering on his mind regarding his young leader

"Say, Antauri, I never got any conformation; how would you say Chiro's first dream control exam went last night?" he asked curiously

Gibson's curiosity peaked that of Sparx's as he asked a follow-up question, "Oh yeah. I'd say he did fine last night, how long before you'd say he's ready to control dreams by himself?"

In thought, the silver monkey folded his hands, as the answer to this question was unfortunately going to be a tad complicated, thus, he responded to the question "His first venture was stellar for a first performance, and the chaos he created was only to be expected, humorous as it was." he lightly chuckled, remembering the insanity Chiro accidentally made from the red simian's nightmare. Antauri stood up and began to pace the floor with a hand under his chin. "In all seriousness, however, it doesn't matter how well that first session went, it could take several weeks, perhaps a few months before he's properly trained enough to care for himself in the dream word."

"What do you mean he can't take care of himself?" asked Nova, tilting her head and pulling one knee up to her chest

He stopped pacing the floor and turned to face his peers "You see, some dreams like the one I made for Sparx," he gestured towards the red simian, "Can prove to be an extremely draining task on the telepath's mind unless they are either highly skill or guided by someone who is." he elucidate to the team, but Sparx was still lost from this conversation

"Wait, define 'mentally draining' " he requested with air quotes

The silver primate began making a list off his finger; "Exhaustion, powers becoming harder to use, struggling to stay awake in the mind of the dreamer. If an unexperienced dream controller stays in a mind too long..."

 **(ONE LINE OF ANTAURI'S NARRATION IN OTTO'S MIND)**

 **"it could lead to some severe damage to his psyche. _Believe_ me my friends, there's a reason this skill is rare." Transition to Chiro who's fallen asleep sitting up, leaning his head on top of his arm. Suddenly, the young warrior jolted awake, realizing he'd dozed off as soon as the tea pot incident ended. "Ah! Wha.. what's going on?" he asked himself as he rubbed the sand from his ** **eyes, then rapidly shook his head to further awaken himself. When the young man's brain was conscious again, he was highly confused by what he was met with. The last thing Chiro remembered was watching the shady orange simian try to manipulate his father figure. However, this scene was different; the five monkeys he know and love we're back in the privacy of Otto's bedroom, watching over the scenes recorded over by the green monkeys. From the looks of it, the team was witnessing the end of Sparx's sinister little talk with their leader. Chiro's eyes were still a bit blurry, so at most, he couldn't see the scene take place, merely the dialogue between Mandarin and Sparx.**

 _ **"Just consider my observations, Sparx. You could rule these skies at any time if you wish to.." was all Chiro heard before the green simian removed the final chip from his computer and ended the transmission.**_

 **Now completely awake, the black haired teen noticed that he didn't remember seeing Mandarin manipulate the red primate or a transition to this scene. Then, he suddenly realized what was going on by putting two and two together, "Wait... did I sleep through Sparx's talk?! What the hell?!" he exclaimed in confusion and frustration. How could he have let this happen? Sure, he was somewhat exhausted earlier, but he didn't feel like falling asleep before, so why did he? "Ah, forget it." Chiro decided to ignore that strange occurrence to focus on the future of this story. He had to keep himself together, he had to learn what any of this had to do with the fighting in the present and why his typically fun and loving family has been at each other's throats**

 _ **The team, excluding Sparx, was frozen in shock over what they've witnessed. The reason the red pilot wasn't completely paying attention was out of frustration, the fact that he got a taste of what the orange errie leader was doing to his fellow brothers left a nauseating zest in his mouth. As for the rest of the Hyperforce, they cringed the whole way through, watching and rehearing what Mandarin did and said to them created an unsettling silence amongst them as they either stared off into space or stared at each other like Nova and Otto. Because they were actually there to discuss this issue, Gibson was the first one to break the ice. "Well... you two have definitely brought something rather foreboding to our attention." he spoke, referring to the green and yellow simians who discovered Mandarin's plan ahead of time. "The question is what exactly did they uncover?" the blue simian asked, referring this time to the other two cyborgs as well as Otto and Nova.**_

 _ **"That's what we need to figure out." replied Antauri with a hand on his chin "I simply can't imagine what he's up to."**_

 _ **Sparx couldn't hold his tongue any longer and exclaimed, "Well, in that case, let's stop imagining and start connecting dots." he said, running his fingers tensely on the**_ ** _table_**

 ** _"Good point." added Nova, who understood where the smart aleck cyborg was coming from, and began briefing her friends on what these conversations had in common "Alright, so when he talked to me, he was tempting me to exploit my temper instead of trying to control it."_**

 ** _"And told Gibson that he could scare bad guys with his experiments, and that the team needs my building skills." added Otto, referring to the blue monkey on his behalf, not that the latter needed it, but it was appreciated none the less_**

 ** _"He implied that I deserve a higher position than second-in-command..." Antauri added in response as he turned to the final monkey_**

 ** _"And that I'm the best pilot in the galaxy." Sparx exclaimed what Chiro missed when he fell asleep, "It sounds like Mandarin is trying to boost our egos." he said sitting up in genuine perplexity_**

 ** _"Oh yeah, like_ you _need an ego boost._ " _said Nova, rolling her eyes at Sparx,_ resulting in Chiro lightly laughing in the background. He could tell from watching this that his Team always had the chemistry and playful spirit that they've always had, but within this memory was the reason that all of it was suddenly gone.**

 _ **"Yeah... all of these mind games seem like he wants us to plant some kind of zealouscy in us, to make us more power hungry or something." muttered Nova in deep thought, "and I have to ask again, what is he up to?**_

 _ **"That's a strong theory, Nova." stated the blue genius, "I've read in history about bitter soldiers exacting this similar behavior in order to start a mutiny within their army." he explained**_

 _ **"What? That doesn't make sense." replied the green mechanic in perplexity, "Mandarin's already leader of the Monkey Team."**_

 _ **"My thoughts exactly. I mean I could easily imagine an egomaniac like him attempting a mutiny if Antauri were our leader." replied Gibson who gestured to his second in command**_

 _ **"Oh, how I dream of that world." Nova blissfully sighed as she placed her chin over her arm, imagining an alternative universe where the yellow eyed cyborg was giving orders. She always did find more trust and comfort in him than Mandarin ever showed her. The yellow female would've lost her mind long ago if not for the rest of her comrades who genuinely believed in her ability to contribute to the team's duties.**_

 _ **Antauri caught that final remark and chuckled in flattery as he laid out more of their new theories "So if Mandarin isn't staging a mutiny, he's certainly trying to glorify us in the way he'd normally do to himself, and I sense that he wants to organize an uprising of some sorts." he elaborated while stroking his chin**_

 _ **"but if it's not for acts of** **insubordination, what is his overall objective of all this nonsense?** **" asked the**_ ** _British simian, not necessarily expecting an answer, as nobody had the foggiest idea in their minds._**

 ** _"What if it's not even that?" asked the green monkey, shrugging his arms, "What exactly is he trying to convince us to do?"_**

 ** _"Why don't you try asking him yourself?" a startling voice creeped its way into the team's inner circle. With widened eyes, the five monkeys turned towards the door to see their unamused leader standing in the doorway, glaring at his comrades as he tightly crossed his arms to his chest_**

 ** _"Oh, Mandarin!" the black simian awkwardly exclaimed. As good as he was under pressure, he wasn't known for improvising under this type of situation. Mysterious or not, Mandarin was still their leader, thus the wise primaate tried to create an excuse for their secret meeting. "We.. we were just um...-"_**

 ** _"Talking about me behind my back? And here I thought we were all friends." he announced with a slight tone of_** ** _betrayal as he smugly entered the room and stepped up to his suspicious teammates. The green simian blushed, bit his teeth and slid down his chair in shame. This whole meeting was planned by him after all. The way Mandarin spoke just always intimidated him since he was Hyperforce's leader and his best friend. This was a problem since Otto wasn't a total kiss up to his leader, but Mandarin did have a strong hold on Otto's self esteem. Luckily, he didn't have anyone else's_**

 ** _"Oh no you don't, Pal!" exclaimed Sparx who stood up from his seat and closely confronted the orange simian, " you're the only monkey acting shady around here! If you think I'm gonna let you pin this situation on us for one second, you're out of your mind!" he ranted on behalf of his friends_**

 ** _Pulling out his own his chair, the intelligent blue monkey scornfully vogued for his fellow Fist Rocket pilot, "I agree with Sparx, we've all had our fill of your_** ** _supercilious mind games, and we_** ** _demand an explanation for your intentions and whatever you have to say 'leader'," he added with air quote you can say it in front of all of us!"_**

 **"Yes! Finally, tell me what's going on!"** **shouted Chiro who was still somewhat tired without realizing it. He wasn't focused on that, he was honestly excited that he was finally going to learn Mandarin's scheme**

 **" _Please, Mandarin, none of us like keeping secrets. So why don't you just talk to us?_ " _Otto meekly rose from his seats attempting to slowly ease out of the mess he believes he created from his simple curiosity_**

 ** _"Well very, I suppose I haven't a thing to hide." he scoffed, clearing his throat, "It has come to my attention, Monkey Team, that we've excelled at our training in multiple areas beyond my expectation." he explained while pacing the floor,_** ** _much to the team's confusion_**

 ** _"Umm... thanks, Mandarin." Nova relied with great suspicion, "but what does that have to do with all these mind games?"_**

 ** _"Well, I've been pondering something for quite sometime, my friends." he said as he stopped to face his entire team all at once, "Ever since we woke up in the Robot, we've vowed to use our blessings to protect with our lives, but at this point, I'm beginning to wonder if we're doing enough anymore."_**

 ** _"What are you talking about?" asked Gibson who was totally mystified, "You just said that our skills' improvement rate is off the charts."_**

 ** _"That's the tragedy of our hard work;" he stated, pointing to the blue simian, "No matter how hard we grow and train, our war against the evils of the Skeleton King will most likely wage on forever." with that final remark, Mandarin left a glass shattering tension roaming across the room. That statement wasn't wrong in the least, when they agreed to defend Shuggazoom city, they all vowed to stay in it for the long haul, and there's no telling how much longer this haul can go before the team eventually can't carry on. They might never lead peaceful lives where they can grow and live together as a family, they'd always have the pits and demons of Hell breathing down their necks. Thus, the conversation continued, "So, for promising to spend the majority of our lives defending those who can't fend for themselves, I believe we need a higher position to continue carrying this burden."_**

 ** _This left even Antauri of all monkey, without any_** ** _comprehension of that last thing Mandarin exclaimed, "I'm... not quite following you, Mandarin. We're the isolated guardians of our Home Planet, I don't see where else we'd need to go from here."_**

 ** _"Yeah, I'm pretty happy living the way we are." added Otto in naïvety "and we've kept Skeleton King away from the city so far._** ** _"_**

 **"Hey, wait a minutes..." Chiro muttered to himself as he thought he might be catching on as the significance** **this** **incident had in the Hyperforce's lives "Is this when I think it is...?"**

 ** _Gibson took a moment of silence to_** ** _contemplate Mandarin's monolog until he finally reached the point that he believed the mysterious leader was getting at. "...Hold on..." he breathlessly gathered the team's attention with highly widened eyes, "Are you_ _insinuating that we claim some sort of power?_ _" he asked with a disturbed voice as everyone whipped back around to the_** ** _manipulative monkey, dreaming his response._**

 ** _"Precisely!" he laughed, snapping his fingers to express the point that Gibson was correct. This came to the surprise and shock of the entire Hyperforce, catching everyone completely off guard and not having any idea on how to react. "Who on this planet would understand Shuggazoom's well-being better than its highest form of defense?!" he gleefully and rhetorically asked. However, he still failed to get a reaction from his team, they were all still in shock, and staring at him like he was absolutely insane._**

 ** _"Oh! Ha ha ha ha!" Sparx laughed so hard he literally slapped his own knee. The red cyborg had such little belief in what Mandarin was saying that mentally, he was flat out in denial, "Good one, Mandarin! Ha! Whoo, I wish I could stay as committed to a joke as you are! Us ruling Shuggazoom! That's rich!" he continued laughing aloud, but he wasn't amusing anyone else as the rest of the Monkey Team merely kept silent, straight face_**

 ** _"Would you rather Skeleton King did?" Mandarin asked the whole team, specifically the red sarcastic pilot. From that, Sparx almost did a double take as he took a few step back towards the table_**

 ** _"You're serious?" Nova asked him, still wanting to be sure that she wasn't the one going crazy here._**

 ** _"To put this bluntly, yes. I believe we should rule Shuggazoom!" once again, the the entire room stopped dead in their tracks._**

 **"No way!" Chiro exclaimed as his** **suspicions were correct, this was the incident that he was only hard briefly about; when Mandarin wanted to take over Shuggazoom city because he thought he was above serving as guardian.**

 _ **Being the team's voice of morality, the pacifist primate stepped in to protest. "Mandarin, that's ridiculous. Any power regarding the lives of the civilians is not our decision to make." he exclaimed calmly but sternly**_

 _ **"Yeah," added Nova who only now stood up from her seat, "and nobody on this planet can understand what we're saying. We can't even talk to these people."**_

 _ **"That shouldn't be a problem." Mandarin said slyly, "If I recall, someone in this room has been working to creating a machine to translate our primate language to the people of Shuggazoom?" he explained, clearly referring to the blue simian standing a few feet away from him.**_

 _ **Gibson rubbed the back of his head, feeling awkward that Mandarin was still proving himself correct "I.. have been working something to help us communicate with Shuggazoom's resident, but I've worked to no avail! It's a moot point. Also, I can't imagine using such an important intention for that sort of purpose." he explained, putting his foot down his intimidating leader**_

 _ **Mandarin simply shrugged his shoulder, not giving two damns what Gibson said, it flat out didn't affect any of his decisions in the least, "I don't get why you're in defiance. All I want is what's for the people we've sworn to protect. Isn't that what you all want for these innocent people? Isn't that**_ **our _duty to them?_** **" _he finished pleading his case to the team, leaving the_** ** _remaining five monkeys in turmoil while all had to reach a verdict. The orange simian's logic was quite sound; they're been working their tails off for as long as they could remember to protect a planet and_** ** _galaxy that would be in danger no matter what they did and how many times they defeated they're greatest enemy. The Skeleton King would never stop_** ** _attacking until the whole universe was reduced the ashes under his feel. Was everything the Hyperforce was doing worth it in the long run? Did you need or even deserve to so much as request a higher position of power? The five of them quickly huddled together to discuss the decision. The only problem is... they weren't discussing anything. This important, life changing chose was thrusted upon so quickly that nobody knew to say. However, as the held each other in that huddle and glazed into each others' eyes, they knew that there was nothing to be said on this matter. Antauri's wisdom, Gibson's intelligence, Nova's passion, Sparx's loyalty, and Otto's creativity. That's what they all needed right there, even if they're the guardians of the galaxy (their galaxy anyway), they were content with this life and ready for whatever the forces of evil had in store for them. With that in mind, they all smiled and nodded to each other and broke out of their huddle to face Mandarin, who was waiting by the door, patiently expecting a response._**

 ** _Antauri was the simian to speak on the team's behalf. He stepped forward to his leader, stared at him straight in the eye, and boldly exclaimed, "Mandarin, we understand that you have good intentions, but we're no better than the Skeleton King if you took independence away from Shugazoom. This war maybe long, but there's no need to fix what isn't broken." he explained, much to Mandarin's dismay_**

 ** _"Damn straight." Sparx muttered while high fiving Otto. The red simian was now feeling internally overjoyed that his smug leader was finally being knocked down a peg or two_**

 ** _"So_ none _want what's best for Shuggazoom?_ " _he scowled, turning towards the door_**

 ** _"We do, more than anything," replied Nova, "and that's why we're leaving them alone." she ended with a smile of_** ** _determination_**

 ** _The orange simian closed his eyes while he faced the door. After a moment of silence, it looked like it was time for plan B. "Well," he began as Antauri placed a caring hand on his shoulder, "Looks like you leave me no choice." he_** ** _simply said. Suddenly out of nowhere, he rapidly turned around and with full force, he shoved a light metal ball into Antauri's chest. Before anyone react, the orange primate kicked the ball, thus activating a button on the ball and pushing the yellow eyed cyborg back into the table with a grunt of pain_**

 ** _"Hey!" shouted Nova as she and Sparx brought out their weapons, but before they knew, that ball revealed itself to be a gas bomb! The team didn't have an opportunity to protect themselves from the gas and it knocked everyone out almost immediately. The last thing Otto saw before passing out was Mandarin activating his breathing mask and calmly walking out of the room without making a sound. Leaving his own team to_** ** _suffocate on the gas plaguing the room._**

(TO BE CONTINUED)

I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!

3 more chapters after this. and my next story is TMNT tots fic, a A Job Overdone.


	14. The Hunt

IT HAS RETURNED! I AM BACK BABY! I still have school stuff to deal with, but October was a month of nothing but projects and tedious things like that. Anyway, sorry for the delay, but it's great to be back. Let's get into it. Read review fave and enjoy!

 **(OTTO'S DREAM)**

 **It's felt like an entirety since Mandarin hit the Hyperforce was hit with a strange gas bomb, knocking them out cold. Because Otto, the dreamer, was rendered unconscious, the blue eyed leader was literally left sitting in the dark until the mechanic woke up, which hopefully wouldn't be much longer. He still didn't understand why, but Chiro was growing consistently more jaded the longer he dwelled in Otto's subconscious. His eyes were blood shot, his eye lids weighted on him as if someone dropped the Super Robot on his shoulders, and he had deep blackened bags under his eyes. Fortunately, the wait was favorably short as the black void began to quake softly, practically rocking the young leader awake as well. It wasn't a splash of cold water, but it would do. Suddenly a rumbling voice could be heard, and the words from that voice were quite vague. Once the sound became audible, Chiro recognized the muffled voice echoing in the dark void to be SPRX-77, who sounded very distraught as he shook the green simian awake after their attack. "Otto! " suddenly the voice became a bright light and red, blurry figure standing above him. "Come on, Otto, get up!" With a slurred groan and a hand on his forehead, Otto slowly sat himself up. trying to remember what knocked him out**

 ** _"Oh, he's up!" the smart aleck exclaimed in relief, kneeling next to the recently awoken cyborg, "You okay, Buddy?" he softly asked, waving a hand in front of Otto's face, and he nodded in response_**

 ** _"Wha... what hit me-" the green simian quietly asked before his memory of Mandarin's ambush bashed into him like a ton of bricks "Mandarin!" he gasped, standing up straight to find Antauri, Gibson and Nova also present in the room, but no orange leader in sight, "Where is he!?"_**

 ** _"Good question." replied Nova, crossing her arms "Last thing I remember is him setting off a gas bomb and running off. What'd he hit us with anyway?"_**

 ** _Before anyone could respond, Gibson accidentally found something at the edge of his feet; he quickly picked up the_** ** _vacant metal sphere, realizing it was one of his and Otto's older inventions. "This must be the bomb's covering." he muttered in distraction, while still catching everyone's attention as they gathered around the blue monkey. The British cyborg's attention was diverted because he placed all his attention into examining the bomb and it's scarce remaining_** ** _content_**

 ** _Finally chiming in, Antauri asked curiously, "Gibson, isn't that bomb body from when you and Otto tried to create smoke bombs?"_**

 ** _"Oh yeah!" exclaiming Otto, confirming his second in command's suspicions "but we didn't design it to put anyone to sleep, did we?" he questioned, scratching his head as he certainly did not remembering any knock out gas in their smoke bomb. The only thing that came to mind was Mandarin's infuriated expression after their bombs turned out to be paint bombs and splattered all over him._**

 **"he, Aw man, I remember that story." Chiro chuckled at being reminded of the paint bomb incident that Otto told him about a good year ago**

 ** _"You're right, but it appears this bomb isn't the only thing Mandarin stole from my failed experiments cabinet." he flatly replied, scraping a fingertip's worth of light beige powder_** ** _out of the sphere body_** ** _"What he attacked us with was a prototype of my powered chloroform experiment. What that snake didn't realize was that the effect don't last as long as intended. This is barely poignant enough to_** _ **etherize**_ ** _an inhaler for twenty minutes." he_** ** _elaborated to the team on what incapacitated them, much to Sparx's impatience_**

 ** _"Well done, genius, now would you care to explain why we're standing here and not beating Mandarin's ass?" the red pilot_** ** _crushed his knuckles into his palm "I always knew he was a sore loser, but raiding Gibson's lab and attacking us because we told him_ no _?" he shortly paced around, not_** ** _comprehending why his leader, an old comrade regardless of their differences, would attack them with such unhinged motives of power_**

 ** _"We haven't a clue of his whereabouts, Sparx." Antauri intervened "If we're to prevent whatever he's planning, we must retrace his steps, but where to start?" he pondered aloud on behalf of the team since they were all asking the same thing, when_** ** _suddenly, the pink eyed warrior had a disturbing scenario play out in her head_**

 ** _"Wait..." she quietly stepped up, drawing the boys' attention to her, "He had access to literally everything in Gibson's lab, all of your chemicals, and all he takes is one batch of sleep powder?"_**

 ** _"What are you thinking?" asked Antauri with a concerned finger on his chin, fearing the destination of Nova's train of thought_**

 ** _"All of his pigheaded boasting about ruling the city, you'd think there'd be something more in that cabinet to peak the interest of a power hungry nutcase." she said with suspicion. The yellow monkey was raising some very legitimate qualms, a rogue schemer_** ** _like Mandarin would be a kid in a candy store with such dangerous chemicals "Is there anything else in your lab he might want for a weapon?"_**

 ** _With_** ** _hesitation, the blue simian tapped his cheek in thought, gazed deeply towards the metal sphere still in his hand and replied, "Hmm, I can't imagine what I have that... would..." in a cold sweat of realization, the used bomb slid out of his shivering hand and he softly gasped with a horrified expression. Otto reached for his friend's shoulder in concern, but before anyone could make a sound, the panicked genius bolted out of the room at the speed of sound, and with dust in his heels._**

 **"WHOA! I've never seen Gibson run like that!" the tired teen exclaimed, practically obtaining whiplash from the proper simian's speed**

 _ **Startled and mystified by his sudden burst of energy, the remaining monkeys chased after Gibson and followed him to his lab. Obviously, the blue simian thought of his answer to Nova's question, and they all had a feeling they weren't going to be pleased with said answer. Once in his lab, the intelligent fist rocket pilot was destroying his lab searching for his notebook and seemingly a few other things that appeared to be missing. Several drawers, notebooks, and cabinets hanging wide open, to the point where the four simians needed a minute to take in the disarray left behind by Hurricane Hal, the monkeys didn't believe that his biggest**_ ** _explosions haven't left this big of a disaster area in the laboratory Gibson worked so hard to keep at least presentable._**

 ** _"So, uh... anything come to mind, Buddy?" Sparx chuckled nervously, earning him a swift elbow to the chest from Nova. The frantic primate banged his notebook on the desk, looking for a specific page, but completely lost his breath when he discovered that very page had been torn out of the book. "By Jove, he's lost his circuits."_**

 ** _"With all due respect, that's been established, Gibson." added the_** ** _pacifist as they walked up to the frightened simian "What else has Mandarin taken?" he asked, attempting to stay calm for his team, despite his own rising_** _ **anxieties**_

 ** _"I don't see anything else missing in here." Nova declared from the open cabinets and Otto replied simply by shaking his head "no". Judging by the fact that every label in the cabinets had a beaker next to it, it seemed like all of Gibson's preserved chemicals were in their place_**

 ** _"That's because the chemical he wanted isn't in here." the blue primate swiftly turned around with one hand on his head._**

 **After muscling through his exhaustion again, the blue eyed telepath caught on to what Mandarin had stolen "The acid" he whispered**

 ** _"He stole all the notes and components needed to recreate my chemical 626." the genius exclaimed in the purest form of dread, and the team gasped_**

 ** _"Wait? That gray acid you made?" asked Sparx "But the video, that was your only batch, you got rid of it."_**

 ** _"Thank the stars I did." Gibson added "We've merely been knocked out for twenty minutes, if he's going to use the acid, he's going to have to recreate it manually. That should buy some time to find him before he's made more." he spoke with haste as he turned to face Antauri in the eye, internally hoping that he might have a solution to this problem. "We need to find him immediately. Chemicals with such temperamental properties as this in the wrong hands could be catastrophic." he finished his speech, plunging the room into a tense silence. They knew that Gibson was right, Mandarin needed to be found and subdued forthwith But where to start looking, how could they track him? Where would he go under such circumstances? The green simian was the first to speak, but everyone was surprised by what he had to say_**

 ** _"Y-you don't think he'd really do anything bad with that stuff, do you?" he asked, awkwardly rubbing his left upper arm. "I mean, he holds the Power Primate just the rest of us, and that can outdo any evil. Even something like this right?" he smiled nervously with a hint of optimism_**

 **"Come on, Otto, open your eyes." Chiro yawned, who, ironically, was having trouble keeping himself aware of what's happening. He was tempted to stop watching this memory, but knew he couldn't. He still didn't know what this had to do with the team's recent fighting, and didn't** **plan on letting anything stop him from getting his questions answered**

 ** _The four monkeys stared at him with mixed reaction, some slightly confused or even annoyed at his_** ** _naivety, but mainly guilt, knowing that naivety wasn't necessarily Otto's story, this was quite clearly denial. He and Mandarin were always close, but now that Mandarin's gone rogue, no amount of evidence was going to make this any easier for him to shallow._**

 ** _"I think you know the answer to that, Buddy." the red smart aleck laid a gentle hand of pity upon Otto's shoulder. Sparx didn't have faith in Mandarin anymore by any sense of his wildest imagination , and while he didn't understand where the sweethearted mechanic was coming from, he could always admire that eternal glimmer of hope radiating within his spirit. A characteristic that the red cyborg would always be jealous of._**

 ** _Otto tensed up again and sighed, trying to get out of the past and join reality "I...I just thought we knew him better than this, that he wasn't capable of anything like this." he said as to cope with this_** ** _betrayal, worrying about how all of this was going to end._**

 ** _Just then, the black monkey's instincts kicked in. The team needed someone to remain unflustered and keep everyone focused on the task at hand, and Antauri realized as of now, that was officially his job. Mandarin's had control over this situation long enough, it was time they took matters into their own hands. "Otto's right." the wise cyborg exclaimed, grabbing everyone's attention "Don't you all see? Whether or not Mandarin has always been like this, we_ do _know him, he's lived with us throughout our entire lives, we've spoken to him in depth, he's lead us in our protection of Shuggazoom, he knows us, and_ we _know_ him _!" he walked around everyone to convey his flowing ideas, and to keep them invested in his lead._**

 ** _"I'm not too sure about that last part, Antauri, you're kind of losing me here." Nova replied with a hand on her hip, and the others nodded in agreement that they're weren't sure what their second in command was talking about nor what it had to do with finding their reprobate of a leader_**

 ** _"If we're to find Mandarin, we must think like him. We'll start at the beginning of his plan and map out his next move." Antauri announced, much to the surprise of the monkeys, and even Chiro_**

 ** _"Oh, I-I get it!" exclaimed Nova, beginning to play along and in thought, she placed a right hand over her temple "I'll start; So I'm Mandarin, I'm the most skilled member of the Hyperforce and I've gone crazy."_**

 ** _"...I want to take over Shuggazoom without any assistance except for the means to create a deadly chemical acid." Gibson quickly caught on to this 'game' and entered himself into it "However, I've never worked with such resources before, so I need time to create my weapon and execute my plan before my team wakes up to thwart my attempts." he concluded his spin on this_** ** _analysis of their current crisis._**

 ** _"but where would or even could I do that?" pondered Otto_**

 ** _Antauri smiled with pride that his friends were seamlessly_** _ **dissecting this situation together, "Excellent, team, excellent." he praised their efforts with circular hand motions to encourage them to keep the tempo flowing, the fate of Shuggazoom depended on this and they had to keep moving "Now we need to combine his mindset with that of our adversaries. I have my scheme of conquest and I'm ready to execute it." he rapidly stated, pointing towards the last monkey to chime in "Sparx, you're Mandarin. How would you go about this?"**_

 _ **"Oh, um..." the red pilot finally took the floor for a moment, "Mandarin is a natural of thinking outside the box, but he also craves the spotlight. Where could he- er I go that would get me the most attention using this acid?"**_

 _ **"and to** **conduct** **my plans?" added Gibson in record timing. "I'm an extremeist, there's no line I won't cross to assert my dominance over the city. I'll use the chemical 626 to send my message across Shuggazoom on a massive scale, but how?"**_

 ** _"It'd have to be someplace where the acid would cause the most damage in the least amount of time. Somewhere that most of, if not the entire city would able to witness my superiority and the fate of those who oppose me." the yellow female declared, becoming perhaps a bit too vivid in her details but on the right track, now to pass the torch onto someone else "Someplace like..."_**

 ** _"Oh! Shuggazoom Tower!" Otto snapped his fingers as he blurted out his idea "That's the tallest building on the planet and it's right in the center of the city!"_**

 ** _"No one would be able to see him from that height." noted Sparx,"He'd have all the time he needs to make all the acid he wants before anyone notices him. It's the perfect place for this kind of attack!"_**

 ** _"Then that's where we're going." Antauri sternly_** ** _announced "Brilliant deduction, Monkey Team, let's go test our theory. We'll have to take the fist rockets. Monkeys Mobilize!" the pacifist exclaimed, with that, the Monkeys rushed towards the tubes, shot themselves into the fist rockets and raced off into Shuggazoom city, hopefully to stop Mandarin in his insidious plan to rule the city in fear and before he harmed innocent people._**

(TO BE CONTINUED)

but this chapter is one thing I've wanted to do for a while; something shorter. This one is under 3,000 words, the first chapter in a while to be one. I probably should've added the next reality scene, but I want to get more of this out to you guys and I have to make them shorter more for myself. The reason this chapter took so long to even start was because I the last chapter was so draining that I didn't even have he energy to proofread it. Here I decided to use the deduction skills I've obtained from _Criminal Minds_ and have the team use their wits and knowledge about Mandarin as well as their foes to find him. Fighting fire with fire and all that good stuff. This was the most fun I've had writing fanfiction in a while and I hope you all enjoyed it.

(I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!)


	15. The Climax Part 1

This isn't my favorite chapter, but I feel it's a good one to get back into the story to, so read review and enjoy.

 _ **(OTTO'S DREAM)**_

 _ **The race was on. The five remaining members of the Hyperforce were racing towards Shuggazoom Tower at top speed. With the Fist Rockets in stealth mode, they flew towards the huge building, hoping that's where the traitorous leader was developing his insidious scheme. The mood was tense within the two fist rockets as they landed down by two nearly buildings as to sneak attack Mandarin manually. As they exited the rockets and prepared to fly up to the top of Shuggazoom Tower, Antauri paused the others in order to devise an ambush strategy.**_

 ** _"Everyone remember their positions." the black simian exclaimed, "Nova, Gibson, you'll cover the right. Sparx and Otto will hit him from the left, and I'll strike from the center." he gestured to his referred teammates quickly._**

 ** _"Yeah, yeah, let's just get up there and beat him into scrap metal." urged Nova cracked her knuckles together, only to create a sorrowful expression from the green primate standing next to her._**

 ** _"Can't we at least try to reason with him before we start fighting? Maybe there's still a chance he'll realize how crazy he's being?" Otto shrugged his shoulders, trying to sound optimistic, but it was clear that not even he believed what he was saying at this point. However, deep down, Otto saw Mandarin as a close friend not long ago, he wouldn't stop trying to find the good in him once again._**

 **"Man, why is Otto still defending him?" Chiro asked, scratching his head with a yawn. The young warrior was still fighting off the pain in from being in the dream world too long. He couldn't leave now, not when he was about to witness a milestone in the Monkey Team's history. He knew he'd never get this chance again**

 ** _"Otto, what does he have to do before you realize he's gone rogue?" asked Sparx in_** ** _disbelief "He's gone nuts, and we have to treat him like we would any other bad guy."_**

 ** _"I have to agree with Sparx again," entered Gibson, "I believe his actions and manipulation have spoken for themselves. I don't know if I could ever trust him again."_**

 ** _After an internal moment of debate, the yellow eyed simian decided it would be best to compromise with both side. "Team," he sternly rose both hands to silence everyone "Otto, while I mostly agree with Sparx, I sympathize with your plight. We'll give him one chance to surrender, and if he refuses..."_**

 ** _"I know what we have to do." the green cyborg sighed in compliance. As ready for a fight as Nova was, she found in her heart to understand her green friend perceptive and place a hand of sympathy on his sulking shoulder_**

 ** _"Thank you for cooperating, let's hurry before Mandarin harms anyone. Monkeys Mobilize!"_**

 ** _(ROOF OF SHUGGAZOOM TOWER)_**

 ** _Mandarin was alone on the dark roof top, working outside of the stolen Brain Scrambler to recreate Gibson's chemical 626. After a few moments under the bunsen burner, the final components bubble together, changing the white liquid to the same dark gray shade as before. To test this home made concoction, the_** ** _manipulative monkey lightly dipped three drops from the beaker onto the table, and the results were as he desired; the acid began to sizzle into the table's surface and a large burning crater burned quickly through the metal, leaving crisp, , rough black edges around the perimeter._**

 ** _"Hm hm hm... perfect " Mandarin chuckled aloud "It burns through any surface except glass. You've made my objective all the more interesting, Hal. I'll be sure to thank you once I've taken my rightful place as Shuggazoom's ruler." he sneered as the last batch of Chemical 626 was finally completed. With this acid, Mandarin could use the Brain Scrambler's cannons to fire into the streets of Shuggazoom, and threaten more attacks on the people unless the citizens immediately surrender and pledge their loyalty to him as their supreme ruler. It was brilliant, he thought, who better fit than him to rule over these primitive human? No longer would he be ignored by the massive and stranded in an old Robot with the same five monkeys for the rest of his days. All he needed for this new, powerful, dominating life was execute his plans without interruptions. Just as he was about to reenter the Brain Scrambler and begin his plan of conquest, blue lazers and red bullets were suddenly fired at him._**

 ** _"AH!" he shouted, taking a few hits to his face, but was able to activate his shield before any damage was done to the beaker. He looked to his left to find that his team had hunted him down and furiously surrounded him with weapons armed and ready._**

 ** _Mandarin was at first shocked that they found him so quickly, but was able to shake it off to work his usual silver tongue against them "Hm hm hmmmm, so the gas wore off faster than expected. I shouldn't have put so faith in one of your earlier creations, Gibson."_**

 **This _caused Gibson to scoff at that mockery "You say as you're using half my work to invade the city!"_**

 ** _"Oh, touché." he replied arrogantly with a shrug. He stared back the Hyperforce, finding that one certain mechanic did''t have the battle stance of the others. Otto just didn't have the heart to battle Mandarin without attempting talk him out of this insanity. It was that close bond that the orange cyborg could exploit the first chance he's given. "I mean your inventions can only backfire so much before you finally create something useful." he added, resulting in a furious growl from the British genius._**

 ** _"Enough of your insults, Mandarin." exclaimed the second in command, stepping close to his rogue leader, "_** ** _I don't know where this behavior is coming from, but we're giving you one chance to stand down now. Nobody has to get hurt, and you don't have to go through all this trouble to feel like you're making something of yourself." Antauri spoke with his tone of wisdom, trying to give Otto his wish and persuade Mandarin to surrender. All of his efforts, however, were in vain_**

 ** _"We'll give you points for dedication to this joke, but how about you drop the act, we all go back to Super Robot, and we just talk this out?" Sparx asked with his tone of arrogance as he lowered his weapon for a moment._**

 ** _"The only one who's still pretending here is you if you think I'm joking." the slimly simian replied "If anything, I hope you've all come to_ your _reasoning to join me on my mission._ " _he_ _gestured towards his team, and was basically stalling the unavoidable fight about to take place._**

 **"Does he ever shut up?" Chiro asked himself from the sidelines**

 **" _This isn't a mission, Mandarin. It's one of your ego trips that's going way too far!_ " _proclaimed Nova, who readied her fists for a good_** ** _pummeling_**

 ** _"We've already discussed this, Mandarin; it's not our place to interfere with the lives of the people in Shuggazoom. We have no place or right to_** _ **peculate them of their**_ ** _independence." added Antauri with a even more frustrated expression_**

 ** _"Their_** ** _independence_** ** _is at risk no matter what we do. All of our past and future efforts of protecting this universe will always end in vain. " the orange simian debated back as he put down the beaker and rose his blue sword and shield up for combat "We must take more drastic measures in guarding over those we've sworn protect!"_**

 ** _"By shooting acid into the heart of the city?!" shouted Nova "If you follow through this crazy plan, you'll have a lot less people to protect! We're not gonna help you harm innocent people!" she exclaimed, as the exclaimed "Yeah!" in agreement_**

 ** _Mandarin began to slowly step closer to the Hyperforce as he rambled on with his own side of the argument "If these people are bit as stubborn as you all are, than I'm afraid harsher means of controlling them must be used."_**

 ** _"I'm done talking!" exclaimed Nova, "If you won't surrender, then we'll have to take you down the old fashioned way!_** ** _FLAME FIST FURY!" with that battle cry, the fight begun as the yellow female charged towards Mandarin at rapid speed. Mandarin blocked Nova's attack, and attempted to sweep at her with his sword. Nova blocked the attack the two of them partook in a rapid fire fight of block,_** ** _punching and kicking until the orange simian kneed Nova in the chest, sending her back five yards. After that, Gibson and Sparx joined in the battle while Otto just watched in disbelief_**

 ** _"Magno Ball Blazer!" "Laser Criss Cross!" the two pilots fired their attacks directly at Mandarin, only for him to fire back his own attack, "Monkey Mind Scream!" with that, the red and blue attacks faded away before they could reach their target. However, from behind him, the black monkey rose from the floor like a phantom and ambushed him swiftly, "Phase and Daze!"_**

 ** _With a yelp of pain, Mandarin was knocked off his feet with a sweep to his legs from Antauri, and Nova rushed back in for another attack, "Boom Boom Wake Up!" the attack made impact, but Mandarin was barely able to block to as he threw the yellow cyborg off of her, only to have Sparx catch her. Then Gibson tried to take another shot at him_ _"_** _ **Cyber Vac Drill Blaster!" with a gasp, Mandarin quickly swiped his sword and destroyed the beam coming towards him. Then Antauri charged at him and slashed him twice in the chest before kicking him back towards the Brain Scrambler**_

 **"They've got him now!" Chiro thought to himself, excited to finally see this fight unfold.** **Especially because it seemed his Monkey Team was winning and making quick work of the traitor.**

 ** _As skilled as he was, Mandarin was out numbered and outmatched. He couldn't take on these four monkeys all by himself. As he backed up into the table where the acid's beaker still laid, he smiled with a dirty idea to even the odds, he took the 626 beaker, another beaker with light blue content and launched it into the Brain Scrambler creating a large fire!_**

 ** _"Oh no!" exclaimed Antauri, "Gibson, forgot Mandarin for now! We must contain that fire before it catches on the building! Sparx, Nova, handle Mandarin'_**

 ** _"Right!" they all announced. With that, Gibson rushed to the Brain Scramble with the water in his drill while Antauri found a fire hose to drown out the fire. Meanwhile, Mandarin was_** ** _initiated phase two of his trick; Nova managed to sucker punch him, but he quickly recovered. He stared at the red cyborg who charged at him with full force, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Then..._**

Slash

 ** _He removed the magnet hand right off of Sparx's arm. Before the red smart aleck could even release a scream of agony, Mandarin grabbed him and sent him flying into Nova. The two of them landed towards Gibson and Antauri, who had just gotten control of the fire, but were now standing soaked in a big puddle of water. Acting quickly while the team was off guard, the orange simian grabbed Sparx's severed hand, activated the e_** ** _lectricity in the magnet, and threw it with great force towards the puddle everyone but Otto was standing in. Before they could react, the water absorbed the_** ** _e_** ** _lectricity, and_** ** _electrocuted all four of them as they screamed in massive pain coursing thought their bodies. After ten seconds of the_** ** _e_** ** _lectricity shocking them, Nova, Gibson, Sparx and Antauri were all out cold and completely vulnerable to Mandarin's attack._**

 **(TO BE CONTINUED)**

A few things. I'm sorry the fight was so short for this part, but I'm not good at writing fight scenes. Also about the electricity thing; I was trying to making Mandarin seem more cunning and I thought this would be something interesting for him to knock out the Hyperforce with. Please leave in honest review and see you very soon with the last two chapters.


	16. The Climax Part 2

**_The orange simian chuckled manically in victory as he stood over the bodies of the four electrocuted monkeys. The four of them were completely unconscious and defenseless as they moaned in unmoving pain._**

 **"NO!" Chiro exclaimed, unable to do anything since this was all in the past. In a panic, he tried to control the dream again, so exhausted that he forgot that memory dreams cannot be changed.**

 ** _Mandarin stood over Antauri, ready to strike him fatally with his blade when all of a sudden,_**

 _ **"Scritch-Scratch Doom Thrower!" a shout was heard as a green, raspy energy bean was fired at Mandarin who was unable to dodge it.**_

 _ **"AHHH!" he screamed in pain and struggled to stand up to find the green cyborg glaring at him with betrayal and anger simultaneously. However, his expression also displayed a hint of mercy as he lowed his buzz saws and begged him to end this madness**_

 ** _"You forget about me?!" Otto growled "Why are you doing this, Mandarin? We had a good life together! We were friends, we trusted you!" he exclaimed, slowly stepping closer to his former friend_**

 ** _Mandarin smiled with another idea to manipulate the situation against the sweet-hearted Otto "Don't complain to me, old friend," he began as he shook off his previous attack "I know you're not don't to hurt me, you don't have the spine to stand up to me."_**

 ** _"I-I really don't want to fight you." Otto gulped nervously, but stood his ground, "but I will if it means protecting Shuggazoom and the others from you! You're bringing this on yourself!"_**

 ** _"Oh, I hardly believe that You act so noble when in reality, you're more like me than I gave you credit for." the former leader replied, much to Otto's confusion "I had great plans for the city, Otto, for us!" he shouted as he charged at Otto with his sword. The green simian dodged the attack as they began fighting each other. "but you had to stick your nose where it didn't belong," he kneed Otto in the chest and kicked him to the ground, "you had to turn the others against me, and you're usually the last person to question my authority."_**

 ** _"What-" Otto began, but quickly blocked another attack and punched Mandarin in the jaw, "What are you talking about?!"_**

 ** _"You act so naïve and innocent all the time, how do I know you weren't deliberately eavesdropping on me and Nova?" he grunted with another swing (and a miss) of his blade "How do I know you weren't planting seeds of doubt in the others to turn them against me? What if I wasn't planning anything and was just having private conversations with the others!?" the two of them stopped fighting for a moment to catch their breath, "You're... more intelligent than you let on Otto, you single-handedly turned everyone against me before they were even suspicious of my behavior. You convinced everyone I was wrong before I could give my side of the situation, before they could hear how we could help Shuggazoom even further than we already do. They won't listen to me because you convinced them not to. And yet all this time, you still cling to the hope that things can return to normal? I'm beginning to wonder which one of us is the true manipulator here." he viciously grinned, finishing his speech_**

 ** _Those words were suddenly sinking in with the green cyborg, and he was suddenly lost in thought. Was all of this all his fault? Should he have given Mandarin a chance before he began spying on all those conversations? What if he pressured Mandarin into these drastic measures because he pushed the others against him? What if Otto himself caused Mandarin to desire this crazy plan of conquest? Did he push Mandarin away from them? Was all this chaos his doing?_**

 ** _Mandarin took advantage of this distraction by striking swiftly "Monkey Mind Scream!" the sonic scream shook Otto out of his trance and the orange monkey quickly kept striking with kicks and punches. Otto tried to block the attacks and even got a few kicks in, but overall was too caught off guard to fight at his best._**

 ** _"They would've never helped you with this crazy plan anyway! I never wanted the team to come apart- oof!" Otto exclaimed as he struck Mandarin in the legs, but the orange monkey still whacked him with his shield_**

 ** _Meanwhile back with the monkeys, the black simian was suddenly awakening from his shock. As he sat up by his arms, he grabbed his temples in great pain, realizing that his telekinesis was temporarily disabled due to the_** ** _electrocution. On top of that, his jetpack was damaged, so now he couldn't fly either. Now on his knees, his blurred vision was returning to him as he saw that Otto was now in trouble; he was losing this battle and desperately needed help, but Antauri's legs were shaken from the_** ** _electrocution, and they were on the opposite side on the roof._**

 ** _"Well, you got the answers you wanted, Otto, now the teams coming apart and it's all your fault!" the orange monkey banged Otto's head into his shield again, this time giving the green cyborg a concussion and was now completely defenseless. Antauri stood up in terror as Otto trembled to his knees and fell over as if he were unconscious_**

 ** _"No..." Antauri was beginning to feel his legs again and began running towards the two monkeys, not even noticing the remaining three simians starting to wake up "Mandarin, stop!" he charged towards them as fast he could with weak legs and no jetpack._**

 ** _Meanwhile, Mandarin picked his sword and chuckled as he stood over Otto who was struggling to move, but still aware of what was going on. The green simian tried to raise his arm, but Mandarin crushed it under his foot, causing Otto to cringe in pain_**

 ** _"If you think I'm going to spare you just for your mercy, you've lost it." he whispered in his ear to taunt him_**

 ** _"Mandarin!" Antauri screamed, not Mandarin paid no heed being so lost in his moment of controlling Otto_**

 **"No..." Chiro whispered, terrified about what he was going to see**

 ** _Nova, Sparx, and Gibson were slowly sitting up and were now becoming aware of their surroundings when Nova noticed Antauri running towards the fighting, and that's when she realized Mandarin was holding his sword above Otto's chest "Oh my God, guys!" that's when Sparx and Gibson shook off their confusion and gasped when they saw what Mandarin was about to do_**

 ** _"Maybe this will teach them to disobey me." he exclaimed with a sinister grin while looking Otto square in the eye. Otto gasped and struggled in vain to escape Mandarin's grasp, the concussion was making it difficult for him to move, let alone protect himself. The orange simian ascended his blade, and quickly lowered the sword and stabbed Otto's upper chest_**

 ** _"NOOOOO!" everyone except Otto and Mandarin exclaimed. Nova, Sparx, and Gibson weren't given a chance to move before Mandarin lowered his sword. Their jaws were dropped and their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls. All they could do was watch as the horror unfolded, Mandarin just impaled Otto. Sweet little Otto, the one person who tried to defend him after all the horrible things he did. The one monkey who was the team's ball of sunshine was just stabbed near the heart and most likely never going to recover._**

 ** _Or was he_**

 ** _Otto was still shaking in horror, waiting for the blade to make its impact, but opened his eyes when it never came. The green cyborg gasped and saw that the sword was standing upright in place, right in his chest, but he didn't feel it. This left Mandarin extremely confused. There was a sword in Otto's chest, yet not a drop of blood or a sound of pain._**

 ** _"What?!" he exclaimed and stepped back, then turned around and gasped to find something very shocking behind him;_**

 ** _Antauri! The black simian had the very tip of Otto's metal tail in his grip and was using his phasing powers to shifts Otto's density. The sword didn't touch him. Antauri was so out of breath from running that he caught Otto's tail just in the nick of time to save his life. He then stared up at his former leader with a smug expression and panted "You.. you were right; thinking on my feet does pay off."_**

 **"YES! THANK GOD!" Chiro exclaimed, feeling such relief was Otto was spared a blade through his heart. Deep down he was proud of his father figure for his brilliant thinking under pressure.**

 ** _This angered the orange simian as he went to attack Antauri "Why you-"_**

 ** _"DIRTY BASTARD!" he was caught off guard by a yellow simian who flew at him with her jetpack and started to violently beat Mandarin with fiery metal fists. Nova was so angry, so distracted by her emotions that she thought Otto was dead, she didn't get a chance to see that Antauri saved Otto was pummeling her former leader as he did murder her friend, and now she was angry. Blood craving, boiling, out for vengeance_ _"YOU ARE DEAD, YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!" she screeched in rage as Mandarin was helpless to defend himself against Nov's pent-up anger. The two of them were screaming in inaudible language as Sparx and Gibson flew over to the two phasing simians._**

 ** _The sword was standing upright because Mandarin pressed so hard on the ground that it was stuck to the roof. The problem was the sword was still in otto's untouchable chest. If Antauri lost his grip for even a second, then the green simian would die. "Gibson, the sword!" Antauri exclaimed_**

 ** _The blue primate nodded as he and Sparx proceeded to pull the sword out like King Arthur and they the lunged backward the blade came free. The second it was out, Antauri sighed in relief as he released Otto's tail, rendering them both solid again. However, between the concussion and the trauma from the betrayal and the battle, Otto was shaken and wasn't moving. Gibson rushed to his aid and sat him up, waving his hand in front of Otto's unresponsive eyes. "Otto!" he pleaded for him to respond "Otto, it's alright, you're going to be okay."_**

 ** _"Is he, though?" asked Sparx in turmoil, "He nearly got impaled, I don't think he's taking this well" he added in sympathy as he placed his only hand on his friend's stiff shoulder_**

 ** _"I'm afraid he's got a concussion. I'm going to have to treat him immediately." Gibson exclaimed over Nova and Mandarin's screaming "...Should we stop her?"_**

 ** _"Oh, right!" Antauri exclaimed, realizing Nova might murder the orange simian if she isn't stopped soon "I'll calm her down, you two help Otto. Sparx, grab your hand first, I believe I saw it over there." he commanded as he pointed where the red pilot's magnet lied on the roof._**

 ** _"Got it!" they both exclaimed as the headed towards the Brain Scrambler. Meanwhile, Antauri hurried towards the two monkeys and attempted to stop Nova from going too far in her anger. As nice as it was to see Mandarin be punished for everything he's done, Nova's rage attack wasn't going to do anybody justice._**

 ** _"YOU SICK, HEARTLESS, FREAKIN BEAST! I'M GONNA-"_**

 ** _"Nova, Nova, stop! Don't kill him!" the pacifist shouted and hugged Nova's chest to pull her off her off of the beaten simian_**

 ** _"NO, NO LET GO OF ME! HE KILLED OTTO! HE KILLED OTTO!" she growled and struggled in Antauri's grasp as she wanted to continued to beat the life out of the presumed killer_**

 ** _"No he didn't, Nova, NO he didn't! Calm down!" the black simian raised his voice and tightened his grip to get her attention._**

 ** _"I-I... what?" she asked with hope but confusion._**

 ** _"I phased his body through the sword, it never touched him. He has a concussion, but he's going to to be fine. " he pulled Nova's face to look him in the eye as he calmly explained that their green comrade was going to live, but considering his condition, Mandarin might not be so lucky. All of his limbs were broken, as were his eye shields, half his fur was burned off, his shoulder dislocated, and Nova even tore off his ears._**

 ** _"What'll we do with him?" asked Nova, glaring at the orange simian who was moaning in extreme pain_**

 ** _"We'll have to discuss that with the others." replied Antauri, "For now, let's just bring him back to the robot and restrain him from doing any more damage." with that, the tomboy and pacifist dragged the injured cyborg back to the Brain Scrambler where they met with the others._**

 **Meanwhile, Chiro was shocked and disturbed by what he just witnessed, all of that action and tension certainly woke him up a bit, at least enough for him to think about the situation. "Okay, so Mandarin nearly killed Otto when he betrayed them. What does have to do with what's going on now?" he asked himself "What could be bothering everyone about-HEY!"**

 **Suddenly, the young teen's mouth was covered and he felt something constrict his entire body, dragging him away from Otto's dream sequence and taking him to who know's where. Chiro was startled and kicked, trying to break free, but couldn't. Then suddenly, everything went black.**

(TO BE CONCLUDED)

This was the second to last chapter in the story, and I hope it came out well. I spent weeks and weeks working on this climax and I'm still working on the resolution. Please leave an honest review and tell if you enjoyed this or if there were issues with this chapter, because I'm too sure about it. Everything will be explained in the next chapter


	17. Final chapter

**Here we are. The final chapter and I'm satisfied with it. I've been working this ending for a long time, but I hope you guys will read, review, and enjoy.**

 **I DO NOT OWN SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO!**

 **With that, on with the finale**

(REALITY)

Gibson, Sparx, and Nova were waiting anxiously behind their leader's entranced body. The blue simian was holding a purple bowl containing Otto's medicine while Sparx and Nova were ready to catch Chiro when Antauri pulled him out of Otto's mind. Suddenly, two booming grunts were exclaimed as both bodies flew backward, reentering reality. While the silver simian landed on the floor opposite to Chiro, the young teen's fall was broken by his chair. However, he lunged so far back that his chair nearly fell back as well until it was stopped by Sparx and Nova. The two of them quickly rushed to the aid of a disoriented Chosen One, with the red primate rapidly waving his hand in front of Chiro's face and Nova gently shaking him to get his attention. Chiro was completely unresponsive when he released his grip on Otto and according to Antauri, Chiro was in danger of falling into a vegetable state if they were too late

"Chiro?" Gibson called in concern from behind, with an expression of terror painted on his face

"Kid, can you hear me? Kid!" Sparx frantically snapped his fingers trying to get Chiro to open his ocean blue eye.

"Come on, Chiro, open your eyes." begged the yellow female who watched Sparx lightly shake the boy by his sulking shoulder. Suddenly three light coughs and groans were heard from the exhausted teenager as he quickly grabbed his temples in pain.

"Aw... guys? Wha- what's going on?" the black haired boy moaned as he rubbed his stinging eyes open to see three terrified but slightly relieved cyborgs.

"Oh, he's safe." sighed Nova who was finally able to breathe since they walked into the room to find Chiro in his weakened state.

"Not for long..."Sparx muttered to her and pointed towards the wise silver simian who was levitating above the bed, panting from the adrenaline is exhibited from pulling Chiro out of the green monkey's dreams. As the panting slowed down, he opened his eyes and gave his adopted son an extremely furious glare as the boy was so tired, he didn't even notice Antauri staring a hole into his head. The three remaining simians saw that fire in his eyes and quickly yet silently slid away from their leader and out of the line of fire.

With a growl, Antauri levitated towards Chiro at lightning speed, jolting him awake in surprise as the blue-eyed robot harshly grasped on to his shoulders, shaking him violently in blind rage and shouting " _ **WHAT IN HELL'S FIERY NAME WERE YOU DOING?!**_ "

"AHHHH!" Chiro shouted as he accidentally fell backward, landing on his back and rubbing his eyes again, quicker than before as his brain was finally awake again, but not all of his memories returned immediately. "Wha-what happened? My head hurts." he complained softly as he rubbed the side of his head

"Get up!" Antauri ordered as he forced the boy up by his arm to make him stand dizzily on his own two feet. Luckily, Gibson put the bowl down and supported Chiro by his whist as the latter kept trying to shake himself straight. "How long have you been in Otto's mind?!" he interrogated Chiro as he levitated up to his eye level and got uncomfortably close to his face

"I-I don't know, since you left? I must have been in there for a while." Chiro quickly replied as he stepped back to gain more personal space.

Before anything else occurred, the red simian calmly pulled Antauri down to his feet and attempted to clear his enraged mind "Haha, alright buddy, let's try to relax for a second, and then think about this, okay?"

However, Antauri was still mortified by Chiro response, claiming how long he was Otto's dream. Even though Antauri complied to Sparx's wishes, he pinched the space between his eyes and muttered aloud, "Holy Shuggazoom are you in trouble." he muttered as he and Sparx stepped to the side for a moment

"What, why?" Chiro shrugged in disbelief. The poor teen genuinely didn't understand what was going on right now. One second he was looking into the past life of his teammates, then the next he's being screamed at as if he'd just murdered someone.

"Chiro..." Nova widened her eyes in concern, "Look at yourself." she said, handing the boy a small hand mirror. Chiro took the mirror to his face and almost didn't recognize who was staring into it

"WHOA!" he gasped, nearly dropping the mirror as he got a good look at himself. He had bags under his eyes so heavy and black, you'd think he'd not slept in six months. The ocean blue vividness of his expressive eyes was gone and replaced with a glassy, unliving shade of pale blue. On top of that, his hair was drooping down in a total mess. He looked like a zombie, it was no wonder the monkeys were so concerned about him. "What happened to me?!"

This caught Antauri's angered attention as he reentered the conversation, "Without proper dream control training, staying inside one's mind for too long can be _immensely_ dangerous!" the silver robot explained, "When we found you in here, I thought you were in a coma!" he added in flame splitting fury.

"Wait, is Otto okay?" Chiro frantically asked as he looked towards the mechanic's cringing, sleeping body.

"Oh!" Gibson exclaimed, picking up the bowl with Otto's medicine. "You're fortunate we came up here when we did, I'd just finished Otto's medicine when we discovered you in your entranced state." the British cyborg explained as he slowly lifted up Otto's head and fed him the liquidized herbs.

"Don't you try to change the subject, young man," Antauri sternly exclaimed as he pointed towards the floor, "you are going to meet me in the kitchen and we're to talk about what you did to yourself and to Otto. Do you understand?"

"Y...yes, sir." Chiro humbly and nervously replied, accepting his fate. With an infuriated sigh, Antauri marched past his son and made his own into his tube. Meanwhile, the three remaining monkeys stared at the young man who slowly made his way to the door after a few moments of fearful hesitation. Before he exited the room, the three of them looked to each other, remembering the events of this past week and what they put Chiro and Otto through. Antauri's mind was clearly clouded with fatherly concern fused with anger, and he wasn't staying true to the agreement the team made; explaining the constant arguing to Chiro.

"Hold on, Kid" Sparx decided as he stopped Chiro from exiting the room. The young teen looked back towards the three monkeys with fear in his glossy eyes. He was afraid of Antauri's anger and what was going to happen to him as punishment. "What you did was crazy, but... we can't let him call you out on it now. We have to do something first."

(DOWNSTAIRS)

Antauri was sitting in his chair, rapidly tapping his right foot and tapping the edges of his pointer fingers together. He hasn't felt his this angry in a very long time, and that's saying a lot considering all the tension from this past week. 'How could Chiro be so foolish?' he thought, ''he's a very smart teenager.' Suddenly, after two minutes of waiting, he didn't hear one pair but footstep approaching him, but four. Yet only Sparx, Gibson and Nova appeared before him, with nervous and stern expressions as they silently stared at him, waiting for the silver simian to speak first. "Where is he?" the angered simian asked, sitting up

Nova was the one who had the courage to speak first "Before you go off on him, I think we should-"

"Don't try to justify what he did!" Antauri exclaimed, standing up and walking towards the three cyborgs, who stood their ground. "He could've gotten himself killed and damaged Otto's psyche."

"What Chiro did was ludicrous, unethical, and reckless, we understand that," Gibson began to calmly debate their side of the situation, "but think of the past week from his perceptive. If there's a reasonable explanation for our selfish behavior, shouldn't we give him the benefit of the doubt that he had an equitable motivation for his actions?"

The blue-eyed robot paused at Gibson's reasoning, Suddenly, his head was clear again and he realized that Chiro deserved a chance to plead his case before Antauri lectured him for hours on end about the dangers of his actions. His anger wasn't erased, but it was eased to some extent. With that in mind, Antauri crossed his arms and made his way back to his round chair " _All_ of you... sit down." he strictly exclaimed as the black haired boy came out from his hiding spot behind the chair and sat in front of the four monkeys who were all sitting in front of him. Chiro gulped quickly as if were on trial for life, even though the others were much more curious than angry, and Antauri was much more relaxed than he was upstairs.

Antauri sighed, leaned over the edge of his seat and softly began "Chiro, what you did endangered your life as well as Otto's. Why were you in his mind at all, let alone for long?"

The blue-eyed inhaled and started to explain his side of the story, "Okay, first of all, I didn't mean to be in there for long. He was having a nightmare and I knew he couldn't wake up because of the medicine Gibson gave him." he explained, rubbing his black bags under his eyes

"I can vouge for that, the medicine was so strong, it should only be wearing off any moment." Gibson interrupted, "Go on."

"I didn't want him to suffer anymore so I figured I could go into his dreams and at least make so crazy like with Sparx's, that he'd feel better. But when I went into his dreams, I couldn't change anything. No matter tried, all I could do was pause and play it like a movie."

"... Because it was a memory dream." Antauri realized aloud

"Exactly," Chiro pointed to the silver monkey in confirmation "and that's when I realized... I was gonna be there for a while. I realized that the dream he was having somehow involved why you guys were fighting so much. Since nobody was explaining anything to me, I figured the only way to learn what was going was to watch the dream all the way through."

The four simians widen their eyes at that final statement "What was he dreaming about?" asked Nova, tilting her head in fear of what he was about to say

"It..." Chiro paused as he mustered up the courage to confess what he's seen, "it was about the time Mandarin manipulated you and betrayed the team."

Every jaw hit the floor. Chiro somehow saw the Monkey Team's history in detail simply through the power of dream control. At such a low level of experience none the less. He knew what was causing all the conflict this week just before the team had a chance to explain it to him. "You... witness our history?" Antauri gasped

Chiro nodded "I saw most of it from the training room incident to when you guys battled on Shuggazoom Tower."

"Then... you saw how hard it affected us emotionally." said the red primate, "It was a really draining experience that was hard to get used to, especially Otto."

"To fill in what you missed," Gibson began sorrowfully "that's why we had to place ourselves in status. Because Mandarin betrayed the Power Primate, it could no longer be harbored within the scum's corrupted spirit."

"Not to mention we needed someone to run the Turso Tank." added the pink-eyed cyborg, "So we had to put our lives on hold and leave Shuggazoom defenseless until another person came along to hold the Power Primate and lead the team. That's where you came in." she whispered somberly

Chiro stared at the floor in confusion, he felt great sympathy for his teammates but didn't understand why that incident was only causing friction now. "I'm sorry that creep did all that terrible stuff to you guys, but why it only affecting you guys now? Why have been fighting so much this week when it hasn't bothered you before?"

The monkeys looked at each other in discomfort. The literal moment of truth was upon them, it was time they finally gave him an explanation for all of the tension caused by Mandarin's betrayal. "This week, specifically today," Antauri confessed, "is the anniversary of that battle on the roof. And we've been so afraid to confront these feelings that we allowed our bottled up sorrow turn to anger."

Chiro lightly gasped in realization. It was so obvious now, _that_ was the cause of all this tension. The Hyperforce didn't want to remember such a horrific time in their lives, but they ended up hurting each other in not confronting their emotions. However, something else was confusing him "I don't get it. After everything he's done to us, how can you still miss him?" he asked curiously

"We had a... complicated relationship, my son." Antauri began softly, only to be continued by the red pilot.

"Sure he was aggressive and bossy, but he wasn't as malicious and crazy as he was in the memory you saw." Sparx explained somberly "Once upon a time, he was a good leader, a friend, and just... someone we could look up to."

"We'll never understand how he could ever do what he did to us after everything we've been together." signed Nova as she crossed her arms together in sadness over the painful memories of their past

"Well, why didn't you guys want to talk about this? I understand it's painful, but look at all the trouble caused by not talking about it. Was not telling me really the better option?" the young leader questioned, sounding somewhat hurt by the explanation. Was the team reminded of their pain by his presence? Was the new leader just a painful reminder of the loss of the old one?

"No, no it certainly wasn't. You were forced to tolerate our childish bickering without an explanation when we should've been trying to help each other." Gibson started into his palms with deep regret over their actions from the past

"Coming off of that, Chiro, we are all _so_ sorry for all the fighting and leaving you out in the cold about it." pleaded the yellow female "You deserved to know why we were angry, but we just kept fighting and-"

"We didn't want to trouble you with this." Antauri interrupted softly "We thought you'd want to do something to help us, but there's nothing you could've done." he explained as Chiro glared at him with a hurt expression. "There's nothing any of us could've done to keep from being upset, but we avoided our emotions in instead of coping with them. I pray you can forgive us for how we've acted."

Standing up now, Chiro was anxiously lost in thought, the implications of why his team didn't talk to him earlier were too big to ignore. Based on their confused and concerned expressions, it was apparent that they didn't realize the implications that Chiro took from the situation. "Are you guys saying you'd rather have Mandarin here than me?"

All four of the monkeys jolted in their seats and denial Chiro's horrible statement as quickly as possible "(gasp) NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

"Are you daffed?!"

"Not in a million, billion years!"

"Not at all!" Antauri replied hastily after everyone calmed down. Chiro flinched again as the silver simian rapidly grabbed one of his shoulders in consolation, "Thi-this is part of why we didn't wish to talk about this, we never meant to imply such an insane accusation. Yes, we were happy with Mandarin when he was good, but we've been so much happier since you became our leader. Y-you've opened our eyes to the value of life across the universe, of the individual person."

"You've seen us that there's more to our lives than just constantly protecting everyone," the British cyborg hastily added. "You've made our lives so much more vivid." Gibson expressed with a smile

"Yeah" Sparx agreed by nodded,

"Absolutely." as did Nova, who was now standing by Chiro and Antauri's side. This caused Chiro to smile as he was relieved that the Hyperforce did value him and that he wasn't a burden on them like he was beginning to think he was. However, before the silver robot could add on to his sentence, another raspy voice was heard

"Count in me." the voice called with a weak cough. The team turned around to find the green simian slowly making his way towards them with a light blanket around his shoulder. He was still somewhat woozy from the tranquilizing medication and tripped onto one knee to take a breath.

"Otto!" they gasped as Nova and Gibson rushed over to him in concern. "Otto, I gave you medicine, but you're still very sick. I think you should rest-"

"I've... been quiet... all week." the mechanic panted as he gave Gibson a very determined glare, "Look where that got me." he added with a serious tone in his, implying that him bottling up his feelings is what made him so sick in the first place. Gibson looked down with a surprised expression, this was certainly a different tone for Otto to give, it was rather aggressive. As if the green simian was demanding help to his seat, the blue and yellow cyborgs helped Otto to his feet and softly sat him down. Everyone but Chiro crowded around the green simian to hear what he had to say and make sure he was alright,

"I'm.. sorry I let myself so sick, everyone." he apologized with a cough, "I should've been taking care of myself."

"Don't you dare, sorry, my friend, all of this is our faults, not yours." Gibson hastily replied who was kneeling in front of the sick monkey

"If we hadn't fought so much about our emotions towards Mandarin, then you wouldn't have bottled them up." added Sparx, "We should've all talked about how we were feeling, and and we should've listened to you."

"Again, we are very sorry, Otto." Antauri announced somberly "We promised that we wouldn't make each other uncomfortable and that we'd always be there if you needed us. Yet, we selfishly broke that promise through our anger." he added as the four monkeys hung their heads in shame.

Seeing the grief on their faces, Otto sat up in his seat and lightly smiled, "Well, you guys are here now. Can we talk about it?" he whispered modestly

"Of course we can." Nova gingerly said, placing a loving hand on his shoulder. "We're here to listen, you can let it all out."

With that, the green mechanic sighed in deep thought, still being aware that his young leader was in the room. He needed to word his sentences as delicately as possible so Chiro wouldn't be offended. As much as he missed Mandarin, life with Chiro was certainly an improvement and he's loved having the bright teenager in his life. "Chiro," he called, grabbing the boy's attention as he was just minding his own business. Because this was the team's past and not his, CHiro was tempted to leave the room and give them some privacy. That apparently wasn't the case "Life _has_ been better with you than with Mandarin, but that doesn't change the good times we did have with." he coughed. "I-it's like your old friends before you met us. We could replace them, could we?"

Chiro widened his eyes at that statement "Well... no, you guys are my family, but the relationship I have with my old friends is totally different."

"Exactly, and we don't want to replace your old friends because we can't." Otto explained, "Just like how you can't replace Mandarin. You're your own person and we love you because you're different. You were a whole new experience when we first met, and it's been a blast ever since, right guys?"

"Oh yeah."

"Completely changed our lives."

"I agree"

"Absolutely." the four of them replied in unison, causing the young leader to blush in embarrassment

"Aw, haha, I love you guys too. My life just has more a purpose with you guys in it, and I wouldn't trade it for the world." he blissfully replied, stepping closer to his teammates in comfort.

Then Otto frowned as he continued to elaborate on his emotions "That's what we thought about Mandarin." he said, bringing back the dark tone of the situation. "He was like family to us, we loved him, we trusted, and up until he betrayed us we thought... sob... we thought he felt the same way." with that, the green cyborg began to cry into his chest as the blue simian embraced him in consolation

"Shh... I know it hurts, Otto. There was nothing we could've done." he whispered softly as he rubbed small circle on Otto's head

"What did we ever do to him to make him hate us?" he sobbed into Gibson's chest "Why did he have to change?" he asked again, without anyone answering him. Nobody had an answer, this was just a tragic part of being mortal, human, so to speak. It was a difficult life the Hyperforce lead, not just good vs evil, but values vs the greater good, morality vs greed, a battle that would never end and one that Hyperforce has created to fight. Otto simply continued to cry, overwhelmed by emotion and his illness, not to mention the pain Mandarin caused by betraying them. It was a pain Otto had harbored for a long time, but now those emotions were free and flowing rapidly with sorrow. All the team could do was take pity on their comrade and join him and Gibson for a group hug. This was the only solution the team had to the issue; hugging and talking it out. They were always there for each other, even in their lowest moments. There may've been one monkey missing, but the team was recovering and releasing their sorrows together and supporting each other until the end of time.

(The End)

 **I hope you all enjoyed reading the story as much as I did writing it. This is my longest fanfiction to date and I put a ton of effort into for you guys. Now I'm going to move on to other stories and keep giving you guys my best matieral. Please leave a review of your overall thoughts of the sory and I hope you guys will keep reading what I have to write. God Bless**


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